


A Tale of Unfortunate Misunderstandings

by JadeDragonhawk



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Eventual Romance, M/M, Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:36:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 35,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23929294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeDragonhawk/pseuds/JadeDragonhawk
Summary: Tenzo has no name, no family and no idea how to survive above ground - he'll give anything to fit into Anbu without drawing attention. So if this annoying kid could stop pestering him, and his new captain would deal with mistakes by handing out pain the way he's used to, that would be great. Sadly, it doesn't seem to be happening any time soon.Kakashi knows exactly what he did to deserve getting stuck with two damaged teenagers, but that doesn't mean he's happy about it.
Relationships: Uchiha Shisui/Yamato | Tenzou
Comments: 24
Kudos: 76





	1. First Meetings

**Author's Note:**

> The Anbu black ops in this story bears little resemblance to the original one. In fact, I took a lot of creative liberties with the setting. Never let the truth stand in the way of a story...

There’s something fundamentally wrong about holding secret meetings at mid-morning, Kakashi thinks as he scales the outside of the western lookout tower, using only his right foot and left little finger to make it slightly more interesting. A brightly shining sun just doesn’t lend itself to any sense of mystery.

He reaches the roof and drops softly down onto the platform. The Hokage, who is reading what appears to be a giant stack of reports precariously balanced on the little wooden table, doesn’t even look up. Kakashi wanders over to the edge and leans against the rail with an air of casual indifference, as if he had climbed the tower on a whim and happened to stumble upon the Hokage in the process - _like that would fool anyone, if they were watching._

“You wanted to see me, Hokage-sama?” He says.

“I did want to see you a little earlier,” The Hokage replies dryly. 

Kakashi blinks innocently. “Maa, I must have gotten…”

“...caught up on the road of life, yes. Well, you’re here now.” The Third hums under his breath and taps his fingers against the paper in front of him. “I have recently discovered some… troubling intelligence regarding our Anbu training facility.”

“Root.” Kakashi says flatly, because he dislikes the whole organization and all its members, both specifically and generally on principle. 

“Root, yes. They have a new class graduating today. I have requested that one of them be assigned to your squad.” 

“To my squad,” He repeats. Root members are taught to accomplish their mission at all costs, without regard to their team or their comrades, and Kakashi has both been there and done that. 

The Hokage sighs. “I had to pull a lot of strings to do it, too. Root is _very_ invested in this young man, and I need to know where his loyalties lie. You could inspire his loyalty, Kakashi.”

And in the meantime he has to keep this kid alive. The chances of that happening are pretty slim, given his track record. Looks like he will have yet another tombstone to visit. 

“And if I can’t?”

A cloud passes in front of the sun, casting shadow down onto them. The Third’s grim face is all the answer he receives.

#####

Shimura Danzo pauses on the way to his office to take a long, self-satisfied look at the new batch of Root graduates training in the hall below him, waiting to be assigned to their Anbu squads. Every single one of them is a soldier, no more and no less. Every single one of them obeys him, and him alone.

He allows a thin smile to cross his face as he pictures the future: control of Anbu is just the first step. There is an entire village that needs protection. _His_ kind of protection, not the kind of wishy-washy incompetence that it currently suffers from.

Then he sees the figure waiting outside his office, and the smile fades into a scowl, his hand tightening its grasp on his cane. It’s unfortunate that he’s being forced to give up his most promising weapon, but he’s not yet in a position where he can challenge the Hokage on something like this. It’s too early to raise any suspicions. Besides, it should be possible to keep control, if he uses a light hand and does it carefully enough. His agents know who their master is.

Resuming his deliberate tread towards the doorway, he leans ever so slightly on the cane. It isn’t always for show, after all. He feels his age sometimes. 

The shinobi drops to one knee as he approaches, eyes downcast obediently. Danzo feels a surge of satisfaction. This one has been well trained. The Hokage will not find it so easy to separate him from Root.

Inside his office, Danzo settles himself unhurriedly in his chair before he summons the one still waiting patiently outside. Like all the Root graduates, this young man has nothing particularly striking about him: brown hair, dark eyes, not tall but not short. There’s nothing at all, in fact, to mark him as being the second (and only living) wielder of the Mokuton. He kneels again before the desk, and Danzo takes a moment to look him over before speaking.

“Graduate 17201. I assume you know why you have been summoned.”

“Yes, sir.” Is the quiet reply.

“You are being assigned to an Anbu squad. Your captain will be here to collect you very soon. I expect you to do your utmost, to serve, to protect, and to do your duty the way you have been taught.” He keeps his voice measured. Calm is the key to controlling those around you: it’s a mantra he’s lived by.

“Yes, sir.”

“You will receive further instructions when I am satisfied with your performance. I expect you may find many things strange in your new environment, but be warned: bad habits will not be tolerated.”

There’s a tap on the wall and a kunoichi appears in the open doorway. She bows low. “Master Danzo, your visitor has arrived.”

He knew that, of course, knew it as soon as the man crossed the entrance and has been waiting for him. “Very well. Bring him in.”

The man who enters is well known to Danzo; and indeed, to most ninja in Konoha. The headband covering his left eye hides something that has been an object of envy for Danzo for many years. An interesting choice on the Hokage’s part. He’d been expecting someone older, someone more disciplined. He doubts whether his well-drilled, efficient graduates will be able to work with someone as… eccentric… as Kakashi Hatake.

He’s a little disappointed, however, to hear a small but sharp intake of breath from this particular graduate. Danzo had hoped his shinobi were above being impressed by such superficial things as personal fame. 

Kakashi strolls into the room with a mild grin. “Good afternoon. I hope I’m not late.”

“Not at all.” Danzo replies coldly. He is, in fact, two hours late, but Danzo knows Kakashi’s most annoying habits and refuses to rise to any bait, deliberate or not. 

“This is the one?” Kakashi asks, jerking his chin toward the young man who has not moved from his position on one knee.

Danzo inclines his head.

“Great,” Kakashi replies. “Let’s go.”

He turns as he speaks, heading back out the door way - _as casually as if he owned the place_ , Danzo thinks irritably. His new subordinate jerks his head up in shock and glances back at Kakashi, then to Danzo, evidently waiting for permission to leave.

Danzo nods shortly at him, and the boy rises and follows his new captain out the door, trying with only partial success to keep up and not trip over his own feet.

Watching them leave, Danzo clenches his fingers against the wood of his desk. Let the Hokage think he’s won this round. Time will tell.

#####

The stairs leading out of the Root headquarters are wide and imposing at the bottom, but with every step they get narrower until they become a dark, winding staircase, too low for a tall man to stand upright in, and not wide enough for two to walk abreast. The door at the top is solid and always shut, so no light can penetrate from above. 

When entering, the unfamiliar trip over the uneven steps. When leaving, it seems like the whole world is coming to an end. 

17201 counts the stairs as they walk upward. He knows exactly how many there are, and how many he has left until the doors close behind him for good. In front of him, Hatake has to stoop as his hair brushes the ceiling. He wonders if he ought to bow his head as well, in case his new captain cares about things like that. 

The door swings inward, and light floods down the passage. He blinks furiously, trying to clear the spots from his vision, but when his foot lands on the final stair his count is only 100. 

Somewhere, somehow, he has missed a step.

#####

The walk to Anbu takes even longer than he anticipated. Kakashi stuffs his hands into his pockets and strolls through the village with a calm that only a very few people would be able to tell was forced.

Behind him the mousy kid follows quietly, head down in that subservient manner all the Root agents seem to have, which always makes Kakashi’s skin crawl. It hides his eyes, so Kakashi can’t tell if he’s actually aware of what’s going on or is just bored out of his skull. In his place, Kakashi would be sleep-walking.

Isn’t this his first time out of the Root complex? Danzo doesn’t exactly allow his subordinates time off. Kakashi expected excitement, surprise, _something_. 

Maybe he’s in shock. Perhaps he’ll keel over dead from all the anxiety before they even reach Anbu, and wouldn’t that just solve all of Kakashi’s problems?

But they make it half way and the kid has neither fainted nor run back underground, so he resigns himself to the inevitable - conversation. He’ll have to speak at _some_ point after all. At least it doesn’t look like he’ll need to worry about assassination attempts any time soon; the boy looks scared of his own shadow. 

“What’s your name?”

There’s no reply. Kakashi looks back over his shoulder impatiently. The as-yet-unnamed kid stares back at him in consternation, possibly wondering if he’s allowed to share this clearly confidential information.

Kakashi scowls. This is why he hates dealing with Danzo’s people. Well. It’s one of the reasons.

“What do they call you in Root?”

The boy’s face clears. “Number 17201.”

Kakashi looks at him. The kid looks absurdly confident with his answer, like he thinks he’s just passed some kind of test. Kakashi’s voice is carefully neutral when he repeats. “Number 17201?”

He nods. “Yes sir.” 

“Is there a 17202?” 

The boy looks at him with a confused kind of wariness, like something’s about to leap out and bite him. _Funny_ , thinks Kakashi, _isn’t that my line?_

“Yes, sir?”

“I see.” Kakashi is quiet for a moment. Possibly the boy is serious. Then he says, “In Anbu, we have names, not numbers.”

“Oh.” He glances up at Kakashi shyly, the first display of any kind of emotion so far. “Will they give me one? A name, I mean?”

Kakashi feels a horrible moment of panic, suddenly remembering that this kid in front of him really is just a _child_ , probably an _orphan child_ who needs a _parent_ , and certainly doesn’t need a captain under orders to eliminate him should he show the slightest hint of being dangerous to the village. Kakashi doesn’t even have his _own_ parents, can barely even remember having them, how is he supposed to _be one_? 

But there’s really nothing he can do, so he just shrugs, and says, “You can choose one yourself, if you like.”

“Did you choose yours?” The boy asks.

“No.” Kakashi replies shortly. “My father did.” He wonders if there’s a way to say _I’m not going to talk about it_ without inviting that unavoidable question, _why_.

Fortunately his tone seems to warn the kid that this is not a topic to continue with. Or he’s just more concerned with other things.

“What kind of name does it have to be?”

“Any kind. As long as you like it.”

They lapse into silence again. Kakashi glances over to see the kid apparently lost in thought. Hopefully he isn’t going to take _everything_ this seriously. They’ll never get anything done. How hard can it be to think of a codename, anyway?

They make it almost the whole way to Anbu before he speaks again.

“Tenzo.”

“Hmm?” Kakashi asks.

“Tenzo. That’s what I want my name to be.”

“Oh. Good.” Kakashi might look like he’s smiling, but he’s really hoping like hell that this kid can learn to think a little quicker on his feet. Or at least show some kind of emotion. Maybe the Mokuton is really a genetic mutation and he’s actually part tree. “That’s a good name.”

#####

Number 17201 follows his new captain into a large, dark, wooden building at the far western edge of the village. From the outside it looks empty, almost abandoned; once inside, it’s suddenly filled with ninja dressed in fitted dark uniforms. He tries to stick close to Kakashi’s heels and avoid getting in anyone’s way: Kakashi strides confidently through the tangle of other ninja, passing through several rooms which look like practice areas to one that looks more like an office. Here he’s left by the wall with instructions to stay put, while Kakashi vanishes without ceremony.

Left alone, he waits patiently and obediently, trying his best to melt into the wall behind him. Or at the very least to make himself blend into it. He obviously doesn’t succeed at it, since he’s getting many curious looks from passing ninja, and more than one dismissive glance that makes him want to sink into the floor. 

The faces around him seem to blur into one after a while, just melting into one faceless, indistinct mesh of bodies. He’s searching for a glimpse of Kakashi’s grey hair when he sees something else.

A snake-like form glides between the other Anbu in the room. He can’t make out the face, it’s hidden, but he’s seen that shape, that sinuous crawl, in his nightmares every night since…

The figure hesitates, tilting its head, as if it knows it’s been seen.

He swallows convulsively. Every instinct screams at him to move, but his legs won’t cooperate - as if they have roots of their own, anchoring him to the floor. Then a group of Anbu walks in front of him and the figure is hidden from sight. When they pass, it’s gone. He turns frantically, peering around the room, when something touches his shoulder.

He lashes out, chakra converging in his fist to solidify and harden into ironwood. He doesn’t expect to actually hit anything, but by the time he realizes that there really is someone behind him, it’s too late to check the blow. There’s a yelp and a thud as a body collides with the wall.

“What the _fuck?_ ” 

He breathes in sharply. There’s a boy on the floor in front of him, glaring up at him through curly dark hair. He glances around but there’s no sign of anyone familiar, snake-like or otherwise. The other Anbu are all staring at him though. He must have imagined the whole thing, he thinks, and a flush starts to burn across his cheeks. Flustered and embarrassed, words leap out of his mouth before he can check himself.

“Why did you sneak up on me?!”

“I didn't! Sorry, I mistook you for a ninja,” The kid snaps back at him, pushing himself to his feet. “What are you wearing, gloves of steel?”

They’re probably the same age, he realizes: now the other boy is standing, he can see they’re both about the same height.

“Uh… yes.” _One of Root’s many lessons: never tell an enemy your skills._ Especially since everyone else is hiding their own skills. He’s pretty sure he hit hard enough to break bone, but the other boy’s not even bleeding. There’s a bruise on his cheek though, so he must have turned his head fast enough to avoid the worst of the blow.

“Oh really? Are they _invisible_ gloves of steel?”

He glances down at his bare hands and grimaces inwardly. _That was stupid_. 

“What’s going on here?” 

An Anbu shinobi is staring down at them. He doesn’t sound pleased. “Fighting inside this building is prohibited. The training yards are outside.”

“We’re not fighting,” The other boy assures him, voice suddenly and suspiciously cheerful. “Just introducing ourselves.”

“That’s a very distracting introduction,” The Anbu says, unimpressed. “Get out of here before I report you.”

“Yes, sir!” The kid offers up a salute and a grin, and lopes off toward the door.

The man turns to him. “And you? Are you also supposed to be elsewhere?”

“No sir, I...” But he’s rescued by Kakashi’s return, and falls silent again with an overwhelming sense of relief.

“Something wrong, Kano?” Kakashi asks mildly, leaning on the wall beside him. He’s balancing a pile of cloth on one shoulder.

“He’s one of yours?” The man grumbles. “Anbu should have better things to do than lounging around here.”

Kakashi raises an eyebrow pointedly. “You would think.”

That unsubtle hint is enough to send Kano scurrying away without any further comments, and Kakashi turns back to his new charge. “Making friends, I see?”

“I don’t think so,” He says truthfully, rather surprised. What’s that got to do with anything?

“Plenty of time for that later, I suppose,” Kakashi agrees, gesturing to follow him. “I have your uniform here, so let’s get you settled in, ok?”

  
  
  
  
  



	2. Starting Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are a lot of things to learn on your first day - new team, new people, new rules: you'd be forgiven for forgetting your own name. Especially when you've only just come up with it.

Sunlight is just beginning to trickle over the hills when he sets off for the training ground the next morning. The buildings cast long shadows which keep the grass damp with dew, and he’s tempted to walk in a zigzag pattern just to avoid the damp and the irritating, itchy feeling of wet grass sliding against his shins. He doesn’t though, because how would he ever explain that?

There are people waiting ahead of him, but his attention is immediately drawn behind them, to what looms above the training ground. Everything else fades into the background - nothing else exists for that moment - as he gazes in awe.

Trees.

Giant trees, smaller trees, even mid sized trees.

They stare impassively down at him, tingling the chakra at the edge of his senses with a feeling of deep, interminable knowledge. For the first time he wonders why Root trains underground, when there are places like this on the surface. Master Danzo had had trees brought underground for him to work with, but he’s never really been able to test his skills properly. Perhaps that’s about to change.

He remembers why he’s here when he realizes that one of the figures in front of him is waving in his direction. When he approaches, he sees that it’s a man and a woman, standing by a wooden fence.

“Morning,” the man greets him. “I’m Haruto, this is Mai. Nice to meet you. You must be our new team member, Kakashi mentioned you’d be joining us today.”

“Yes,” he agrees.

“Kakashi’s late, of course. He’s always late,” Haruto tells him cheerfully, seemingly unbothered by the fact that his team captain is apparently unable to tell time. “There’s no point in turning up early, you’ll just end up wasting your time. Of course, you don’t want to be late either, because he’s got a way of turning up exactly when you think he won’t. I have no idea how he does it. This one time, I had stopped to grab coffee, and...”

He continues to relate the tale for several minutes, though it seems to contain nothing of value aside from the fact that their captain is apparently psychic. The woman, meanwhile, is leaning against a fence post and staring at the ground by her feet. She barely acknowledges Haruto, but gives 17201 a curious look, and when Haruto pauses for breath she takes the opportunity to ask.

“So what’s your name, then?”

Her voice is low and quiet, but it carries all the same. He scrambles to think for a moment - shit, what had he told Kakashi - before it comes back to him.

“My name is Tenzo,” he replies, “but in Root I am 17201.” 

She’s surprised enough to look him in the eye. Even Haruto doesn’t seem to know what to say to this. An awkward silence descends among them, though he’s not quite sure why. There are other people from Root in Anbu, right? Don’t they give out their numbers? Maybe he should stop doing that. 

“Maa, all here and getting acquainted? That’s good,” Kakashi says, startling all of them by appearing from nowhere and acting as if he’d been there all along. 

“Let’s get started, then.” Their captain wanders over to a nearby railing to lean against it. “Tenzo, come here, I want to show you something.”

Is he allergic to standing upright, that he has to lean against everything nearby? Master Danzo says a good shinobi should always stand ready to act. Surely that has to slow his reaction time?

“Tenzo!” 

He jumps. Right. Tenzo is me. I’m Tenzo. “Sorry, captain.”

“Most people are a bit slow on their first day,” Haruto says cheerfully from beside him. “Though I remember when I first joined, I was sparring with my captain (not Kakashi then, of course) and I knocked him flat on his back! Remember that, Mai? Oh, you hadn’t joined then, had you? That’s right. Anyway...”

“Haruto!” Kakashi says. He sounds just a little bit impatient. “Let’s go, we don’t have all day.”

The rest of the morning passes in a blur. Kakashi drills them in exercises for offensive and defensive maneuvers, first using the standard scenarios and then breaking into variations that Tenzo has never seen before. He finds it difficult to keep up, especially when he isn’t sure what the correct response is to each situation. A couple of times he has to give up entirely and just react on instinct. He must get it right, though, because Kakashi doesn’t rebuke him.

Kakashi doesn’t really talk to them at all, in fact, just barks orders and waits for them to get on with it. Tenzo’s used to a more explicit method, where mistakes are remarked on immediately and repeated mistakes are punished - severely. But maybe this is a grace period - it is the first day, after all. He resolves to work twice as hard tomorrow.

Staying on his toes all the time helps keep his mind from drifting to darker places. Because whenever Tenzo has time to think, he can’t stop himself from glancing around, looking over his shoulder to see if someone’s watching him. He knows that yesterday was just his imagination - it would hardly be the first time - but that feeling of dread is just too strong to shake.

At midday they break for lunch and Haruto leads them all to a ramen stand. Tenzo remembers eating at one once a long time ago, before he was first brought into Root and after… well. The aromatic scent of noodles and meat brings back more good memories than bad.

“My treat,” Haruto says as they sit down. “As a welcome for our new comrade.” He raises his miso in Tenzo’s general direction. The other two mimic him, and Tenzo clutches his own bowl awkwardly, not sure what to do with it. They complete the strange ritual by taking a drink, which is at least something Tenzo can copy.

The afternoon proceeds in a similar manner to the morning. There are other Anbu around them training as well, though everyone keeps a healthy distance. The ground they’re using is on the edge of the training area, half hidden from the Anbu barracks by the tall trees. Every now and then, Tenzo glances up at those scarred, battle-hardened trunks and feels chakra spark in both hands with muted anticipation.

When the sun has dipped low enough that the forest’s shadows reach all the way across the field, Kakashi calls a halt. Tenzo takes a minute to catch his breath and wonders again, with more exhausted frustration this time, why Root trains underground. There’s so much more room up here and it takes so much more energy to cover it all. It really doesn’t prepare you very well.

“Tenzo!” 

He glances up to see Kakashi approaching. “Yes, captain?”

“Very good,” Kakashi grins. “I only had to call you twice that time.”

So he’s still getting the hang of this name thing. This is a lot of new things to take in for one day.

“Sorry, captain.”

Kakashi waves one hand in a manner which could either mean he’s annoyed or he doesn’t care. Tenzo hasn’t quite figured that out yet. “Never mind. We need to talk about something.”

He glances around, but Mai and Haruto have already left and it’s just them standing in the field. No one else is close enough to hear what they’re saying.

“I’m told you have a unique ability,” Kakashi says carefully, and for all he’s slouching over Tenzo suddenly gets the feeling that it wouldn’t slow him down at all. “A combination of earth and water chakra that allows you to control wood.”

“That’s right,” he says, not really sure where Kakashi’s going with this.

“It was a secret in Root, I suppose. Was anyone aware of it, apart from Danzo?”

He shakes his head. “No, captain.”

“Are you planning to do the same in Anbu?”

“Yes, captain.” He might be new, but at least he knows better than that. Master Danzo was specific when he said that the Mokuton should be a closely guarded secret from everyone, even teammates. He’s surprised that Kakashi knows, actually.

Kakashi is still watching him with that cold intensity, as if he’s trying to determine whether or not Tenzo is his enemy. “I see. I wonder how you plan to keep that kind of secret from the people fighting next to you.”

Tenzo stares back at him dumbly, wondering if this is a threat or a command. If Kakashi orders him to reveal the Mokuton to the rest of the team, in direct conflict to Master Danzo, what is he supposed to do? Is this some kind of test?

After a moment Kakashi sighs and then drops one hand onto his shoulder. Tenzo manages to stop himself from flinching, but it’s a close thing. Root instructors don’t touch without inflicting pain, and true shinobi don’t flinch from it. So he waits for the inevitable sting from Kakashi’s fingers and hopes it will be lightning and not fire, because burns take so much longer to heal.

Nothing happens.

“Think about it,” Kakashi says, and steps away.

Tenzo blinks and reaches up to touch his shoulder, tapping it lightly at first, and then harder. It still doesn’t hurt. 

“I assume you haven’t tried working with a real forest before,” his captain calls from the other side of the field, where he’s perched in the branches of a small oak tree. “Why don’t you try it out?”

He has been waiting all day for this, after all. If Kakashi wants to play mind games, so be it. 

It turns out that trying to control multiple trees is a lot harder than one at a time (who’d have thought?), and three days later he hasn’t made much progress. Tenzo tries to practice, he really does, but between his Anbu duties, and only being able to use his Mokuton when no one else is around to see it, and not reshaping the forest - because people tend to notice when trees they’ve known their whole lives suddenly change shape - he isn’t getting very far. 

Fortunately, nobody seems too concerned with this. Kakashi hasn’t mentioned it since that first day, and he hasn’t heard anything from Master Danzo yet either, though he’s sure it’s just a matter of time. Nobody else cares because, well, nobody else knows.

So he counts his lucky stars for the reprieve, and focuses on doing his job in Anbu.

Mostly this seems to involve various kinds of guard duty. The target changes, but their system doesn’t: they work in pairs, switching out every six hours. Tenzo’s partner is always Kakashi, and he doesn’t talk much (for which Tenzo is grateful - he isn’t sure he’d be able to handle Haruto for more than one shift). Six hours on and six off leaves just enough to eat, sleep and train, so the time goes pretty quickly. 

Guard duty is pretty much the staple of Anbu life - in fact it’s pretty much the staple of life as a ninja in general, especially now that the wars are mostly over - and Tenzo had already expected to spend most of his time doing it. In Root they were prepared to guard all kinds of different targets, ranging from the Hokage himself (they would practice this using Master Danzo as a stand in) to merchant convoys to buildings to entire towns. He had thought himself prepared for anything, which is why he is surprised when, on the third day, they’re given a completely different kind of target: a 5 year-old boy.

Haruto groans when they’re told, and spends the next five minutes complaining that this mission is both (somehow) ‘really mind-numbingly boring’ and ‘way too much work’. Mai doesn’t say anything, but her lips tighten in a way that might suggest annoyance, if Tenzo knew her better. Kakashi tells them all to be quiet and get on with the job, even though only one of them is actually saying anything.

Tenzo isn’t sure how much guarding this child can possibly need, seeing as how he’s too young even for Root and not living inside any kind of test tube. The boy does live in some kind of communal home that is inhabited by numerous other children. Tenzo likes it - there’s food and other children and it’s above ground. Is this how children normally grow up? It seems nice, and there are no needles involved, at any rate. He lifts a hand to press over the back of his neck subconsciously. 

The child - Tenzo hasn’t heard his name mentioned yet, and at this point he doesn’t want to ask: it seems like he’s just supposed to know, and yet he has the strangest feeling that people just don’t want to say it - the child apparently doesn’t want to spend time with his housemates. So for the first few hours he and Kakashi trail the boy all over the village: skipping stones over the river, climbing the trees outside one of the clan compounds, then into the marketplace. He’s easy to follow: his bright orange jumpsuit stands out wherever he goes, but no one seems to pay any attention to him. When he takes fruit from one of the stalls behind the merchant’s back, Tenzo expects Kakashi to do something (that is stealing, right? Stealing is still a thing above ground?) but maybe children are allowed to do this, because his captain does nothing. Doesn’t even react, in fact, which leaves Tenzo with an ever growing list of questions and no one to ask about them.

The kid doesn’t stay very long in the marketplace, but he does slip a couple of roughly painted explosive tags onto some barrels of sake before he leaves. Tenzo watches in disbelief, sure that this time, surely, Kakashi will do something. But he just follows the boy across the rooftops, leaving Tenzo to scramble after him, even as the tags go off below them and cries of shock echo up from people who are no doubt now soaked in sticky rice wine. 

At this point Tenzo is wondering if maybe their job isn’t to protect the boy, but to protect the village from him. Especially when he returns to the compound building from earlier in the morning - which was apparently a scouting mission since the kid is now painstakingly placing more tags (and not all of these are explosive, so Tenzo is starting to worry about what these ones will do) along the underside of the windows. 

Kakashi is ignoring all of his pointed glances, so Tenzo fidgets in place until the boy moves on to some oil barrels stacked along the fence surrounding the courtyard. This is not good. An oil fire could set the whole village ablaze.

Tenzo leans over cautiously. “Captain..?”

After a moment, Kakashi lets out a long suffering sigh. “Wait here,” he says softly, reluctantly pushing himself up. “Don’t lose him.”

He slides gracefully down the hidden side of the roof and vanishes into the wooden houses lining the street. Tenzo watches him go, unsure what his captain is planning to do, and wondering if he is expected to do something should this mini pyromaniac decide to set off his fire hazard before Kakashi gets back.

For long, tense minutes he watches as tags are carefully attached to each barrel, and then for a second - just for one second - he turns away to see if Kakashi is finally coming back. But the street is empty. And, when he turns back, so is the courtyard.

Fuck.

Where is the boy? Tenzo frantically scans the area, praying that he is just temporarily concealed by a barrel. Or a plant. Or a shadow.

No such luck. He tries again, only this time searching for a chakra signature. For a five-year-old, the boy has an impressive chakra signature. But he can’t sense that, either. How can a child - even a shinobi child - disappear like that? 

Tenzo feels panic rising hot and frantic, and struggles to clamp down on it. No one can think while they’re panicking, he needs to stay calm; but Kakashi’s only order was ‘don’t lose him’ and oh look, he’s done exactly that. Root isn’t going to take him back. If he can’t survive in Anbu then they’ll send him back to… back to the cave where… 

He grips the roof tiles with both hands and tries to get his breathing under control. One hand instinctively rises to cover the back of his neck. 

Think, Tenzo, think. Why can’t you feel his chakra? He can’t have gone that far.

The sound of many voices carries, jumbled and indistinct, from the marketplace.

If it was surrounded by other chakra…

He leaps down from the roof and hurries towards the closest group of people, ducking around walls and trees and buildings and just generally trying to keep out of sight while at the same time looking everywhere for a glimpse of that distinctive orange jumpsuit. 

And there he is! Just for a moment, before he disappears through one of the low windows of a large building. He pulls it shut behind him, but there are a lot of other windows along the building’s outer wall.

Tenzo hurries towards it, but doesn’t pay attention when he steps out of the shadows and almost collides with two people who come around the corner at that moment. He manages to get out of the way in time, but bumps into an older woman walking the other way. Apologising hastily while walking backwards, he only just avoids a second collision with someone else.

“Careful,” A voice says next to him. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you to look both ways before crossing the street?”

“No,” Tenzo replies automatically, turning to look at the speaker. A slim boy with curly black hair - it takes him a minute, but Tenzo recognizes him from that first day in Anbu. The one he’d accidentally struck with a hardened fist. Tenzo hopes he isn’t holding a grudge over that. The boy looks cheerful enough, but he’s spent too much time in Root to be trusting of appearances.

“Really?” The boy asks surprised, and Tenzo is tempted to ask what he means, but his target is getting away again and there isn’t time for this. At least he can get some information before rushing in blind.

“What building is this?”

“This one?” The boy’s eyes follow the direction his hand indicates. “Uh, I’ve never been in there myself, but my friend told me it’s a weapons storehouse.”

The village has a weapons storehouse with open windows and no guards? What is wrong with these people?

“Are there guards inside?”

“I… don’t know? Why, are you planning to rob it?”

“My target’s inside.” 

Tenzo doesn’t wait for a reply. He has all the information he needs, and dashes towards the building. A startled yell follows him.

“Wait, what target?!”

There’s no time to lose now. He doesn’t bother answering, just goes straight for the open window next to the one he saw the kid enter. He peers into the room inside, and on finding it empty, shimmies inside and drops soundlessly to the floor. There aren’t any weapons in the room, which is a little strange. In fact, the room is completely empty.

His target isn’t here, but there’s only one door leading out of the room. It opens into a wooden corridor, but there’s no one here either, which is pretty lax security for a weapons’ storehouse in Tenzo’s opinion.

There are a few doors in the corridor, but only one of them has sound coming from behind it. It’s the door furthest from him, and he runs toward it with single-minded determination, never stopping to think about the fact that he is really only supposed to be watching, that he isn’t supposed to reveal his presence to the target at all. The only thing on his mind right now is that place, and the needles, and the slow drip, drip, drip of water. There’s no way he’s going back there.

So he tears the door open and is three steps inside before he looks around and sees where he is. And who else is there. Because the kid with the orange jumpsuit is nowhere in sight, but there sure are a lot of other people. Important looking people, seated around a low table, with way too much paperwork for this not to be a secret meeting of some kind. All of them are staring at him, with mixed degrees of shock, horror and indignation.

An older man, seated at the head of the table, rises slowly to his feet. Slow fury is gathering in his face. Tenzo thinks he looks a little like Master Danzo, and takes a deep breath to stop himself from passing out. 

“And who do you think you are, young man?”

#####

Inside Anbu headquarters, Kakashi strolls into a large room, both hands casually stuffed in his pockets. He’s supposed to be finding the Hokage, to tell him that Naruto is up to his old tricks again, but a summons like this is not one he can ignore. 

There’s a man and a woman inside, both of them old and wizened in the way that implies strength and iron will, but not necessarily wisdom. They are the leaders of Anbu, and Kakashi deliberately doesn’t bow, but he does lower his eyes and wait for them to speak first. He may not be their biggest fans, but it’s not like they’re Danzo Shimura, after all. They deserve some respect.

Neither of them look impressed by his subtle concession. The woman speaks first.

“Well, Hatake. You have a new team member, correct? How is he working out?”

“As well as can be expected, considering it’s only been a few days,” Kakashi replies, wondering how much they know and if the Hokage knows they know it. He’s certainly not about to volunteer anything.

“He comes from Root, does he not?” The man asks. “He is competent, then?”

“Yes,” he agrees. What the hell is this all about?

“Then you would consider taking on another new member?”

Kakashi freezes. Another new member? And they’re asking him to consider it, which means that he can refuse. In fact, they’re expecting him to refuse, even want him to refuse it, because otherwise this would have been an order.

“Who would this person be?” he asks cautiously.

The woman sighs, tapping her fingertips together deliberately. “You have perhaps heard that we recently accepted an… Uchiha... into the ranks of Anbu. Very few of our teams are able to accept such a shinobi. We thought that, given your own… association… with that clan, that you might consider it.”

Kakashi is torn between admiration of how much disdain she manages to convey without any inflection in her voice at all, and thinking that the Uchiha would probably prefer any scion of their clan to leave Anbu rather than be placed under the command of Sharingan Kakashi.

Or maybe that’s the plan.

Either way, there seems no good outcome here. He already has his own personal headache - who requires a lot of his time - and adding another potentially unstable element to an already precarious situation is asking for trouble. He has no idea how Tenzo would react to an Uchiha, but he doesn’t think it will be good. Haruto will ask for a transfer. Mai - actually Mai won’t care. Probably. Maybe. Anyway, why risk it?

So he’ll decline politely, and stay well clear of whatever political quagmire is going on here.

Or he’s about to. But they’re interrupted. 

The shinobi who bursts through the door bows quickly to the leaders, but addresses Kakashi.

“Excuse me, sir, but they need you right away. At the Hyuga compound, sir.”

“Why?” Kakashi asks, in no hurry to throw himself into the mouth of the beast (or in this case, the Hyuga).

The shinobi tells him. 

“Tenzo did what?!”

Half an hour later, Kakashi has pacified the head of the Hyuga clan by assuring him that Anbu is definitely, 100% not spying on his clan, talked down a bunch of angry shinobi who are more than eager to come to blows, and dealt with numerous other complaints by completely ignoring them.

He’s anxious to get away and find out what exactly happened, and he’s also not keen on leaving Tenzo alone with the rest of the team for any length of time - partly for their safety but also because Haruto’s long winded lectures are not going to help anyone, much less this socially retarded boy. And what was Tenzo thinking, in the first place, barging into the Hyuga compound’s meeting room like that? Kakashi’s pretty sure he said “stay there” and wasn’t gone for more than a few minutes.

He’s also burningly aware that he should never have left the kid alone in the first place. No matter how much the Hokage wants to test his loyalties.

When he finally escapes, he finds the rest of the team waiting for him outside the compound. He can hear Haruto’s voice before he sees them, half way through some edifying story about a ninja who couldn’t track a target and was kicked out of Anbu to become a civilian. Tenzo is staring at the ground, countenance wooden, but Mai glares at him when he approaches. It’s her way of saying ‘where the hell have you been’ and ‘what took you so long’. 

Kakashi grimaces at her in silent apology and interrupts Haruto without compunction. “You two, dismissed. Tenzo, with me.” 

Mai and Haruto vanish without argument. Tenzo follows him silently, head down and eyes hidden.

Kakashi’s house isn’t far, and Tenzo looks a little startled when he unlocks the door, pausing first to undo the wards guarding it. He waves the kid inside; Tenzo is hesitant, but does what he’s told without complaint.

Once inside, Kakashi slumps onto his couch and gestures for Tenzo to sit. He has to repeat the gesture several times before the kid realizes what he means and gingerly perches himself on a wooden chair next to the dusty kitchen table. 

“So.” Kakashi taps his fingers along the back of the couch. “How about you tell me what happened?”

The kid swallows, glances up at him for a second and then firmly fixes his gaze back to the floor. “I interrupted a clan meeting.”

“So I heard,” Kakashi says wryly. “I meant, why? I thought I told you to stay put?”

“You did, captain. I made a mistake.”

“Okay. I was really hoping to get some more details than that, you know.”

Tenzo’s eyes dart up to meet his again for a second. “Captain?”

Kakashi sighs. Is this some kind of anti-interrogation training that Root has? “What happened after I left?”

The kid hesitates. “I was watching the target, like you said captain, but he had explosive tags and I wasn’t sure… that is… I turned to see where you were, and when I looked back… he wasn’t there.”

“And then?” Kakashi prompts.

“And then, I was looking for him, and I met… I mean… I saw him go through the windows of that building, so I followed him.”

“Why did you go into the building? Why not wait for him to come out?” 

“I thought… I thought it was empty.”

Kakashi frowns in confusion. “Why did you think it was empty?”

“I thought it was a storehouse.”

Why would he think that? Did someone tell him that? And who? “Why did you think it was a storehouse?”

Tenzo swallows again. “I just thought it was.”

They go back and forth a few more times before Kakashi gives up. It doesn’t look like Tenzo was actively spying for Danzo. It does look like he’s covering for someone, but whether that someone was malicious or not he can’t tell. Clearly it’s going to take more time before the kid will trust him. 

Probably because he’s scared. Kakashi hates the way the kid can’t even look at him, like he’s waiting for the blow to fall. The same way he flinches just the tiniest bit whenever Kakashi (or anyone else) gets close, or goes to touch him. Kakashi hates Root. He hates them a lot.

There’s no point in questioning the kid further. It’s just a pointless form of torture for both of them. Kakashi waves a hand in dismissal. 

“Go on, then. Go home, get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Tenzo looks up then, like he can’t believe his ears. Kakashi isn’t sure if he’d expected physical punishment or to be sent back to Root. Maybe to him they’re the same thing. “Captain?”

“It’s fine. You’re not in trouble.” He’s getting soft. He shouldn’t be caring so much about some kid who probably won’t be able to overcome whatever programming Danzo hammered into him anyway. “Go on.”

Tenzo drops into that horrible Root bow, on one knee with his forehead almost pressed to the floor. “Yes, captain. Thank you.”

And then he’s gone, which is good because Kakashi really couldn’t have looked at that any longer.

He drags himself into the kitchen and picks through his sink for the least dirty cup, filling it with water and taking a deep gulp. 

The nausea doesn’t go away. Neither does the guilt.

#####

Safely back in his Anbu barrack room, Tenzo locks the door, grows an extra two doors on the inside of it just to be safe, and curls up in a ball on his bed. He closes his eyes and wills his hands to stop trembling, even as he curls one over the back of his neck. It doesn’t work.

How could he have been so stupid? Lost his head so completely during a mission, embarrassed himself - and consequently his team, Kakashi and the rest of Anbu - in front of a group of village elders. Very angry village elders. He still can’t believe he’s still here, that Kakashi has given him a second chance. Maybe he’ll change his mind.

Either way, Tenzo has already used up any good will he might have had. One more mistake and this will all be over. 

Drip, drip, drip… The water sounds as clear in his memory as it had then.

He takes a deep breath and rolls over onto his back, rubbing his eyes and staring up at the ceiling. Who was that boy, anyway, the boy with the curly dark hair? And what does he have against Tenzo specifically, to give him such bad information? It’s almost as if he’d set Tenzo up for this exact situation, deliberately. Maybe he’s still angry about their first meeting, when Tenzo struck him. Nevermind that it was an accident, or that he wasn’t even hurt.

But so what if he is still angry about it? Tenzo should have known better than to trust anyone - hasn’t Root and Master Danzo hammered that into him already? From now on, he won’t let his guard down again. He will rely only on himself.

At least he knew enough not to mention that whole incident. There’s nothing Master Danzo hates more than soldiers blaming other people for their mistakes.

And he will work twice as hard to make up for this. He will not be sent away. He will not be sent back. 

So the next morning, Tenzo gets up extra early. He hurls himself through his morning routine - clothes, shower, food - then practically runs out the door and down to the training fields. Hardly anyone is here at this hour - in fact, not even the sun has put in an appearance yet. The village is silent, while the woods are just beginning to stir with those pre-dawn flutterings as birds start chirping and unseen animals rustle in the bushes.

Another time, Tenzo would have been distracted by the almost other-wordly calm. Today he puts it out of his mind, and runs himself through a punishing routine that includes every training regimen he can remember. 

By the time he’s done, he’s exhausted and sweating, and he decides he can take a moment to watch the sun finish rising over the forest. The rest of his team isn’t here yet - they won’t be here for a while. He has time.

He’s staring out over the forest, idly watching the wind blow trails through the leaves and tuning out the sounds behind him from the few Anbu who are actually up at this time of the morning, when he’s startled by a hand suddenly gripping his arm. 

Tenzo reacts instinctively, seizing the offending wrist before it can do any damage, hooks one leg around the fence post for support and twists his body to send the culprit flying over his hip and crashing to the ground. He does it without losing his balance too, which he’s rather proud of.

It feels like deja vu when it’s that same boy sprawled on the ground in front of him, dark curls tangled around his face. He doesn’t bother getting up either, just rolls onto his back and glares up at Tenzo aggrievedly. Is he here to gloat, Tenzo wonders, or to find out if his plan had worked?

“Do you assault everyone you meet, or is it just me?”

“Only the people who try sneaking up behind me,” Tenzo says. Why he thinks that would be a good idea to try on a shinobi is beyond him.

“I called out to you!”

“I didn’t hear anyone calling me.”

The boy grins, propping himself up on his elbows. “Well I don’t know your name.” 

“How can you call out to me if you don’t know my name?”

Tenzo sees him roll his eyes impatiently. “I called out… to you… just not by name.”

“Then how am I supposed to know it’s me you’re talking to?”

“I was right behind you!”

They glare at each other for a moment, and then the boy huffs and pushes himself into a sitting position.

“I’m Shisui.”

“Okay.” Tenzo files the name away for future reference. Shisui stares up at him expectantly.

“So are you going to tell me your name or not?” 

“It’s Tenzo,” he says, pleased that he feels no hesitation this time. 

Shisui wrinkles his nose. “Just ‘Tenzo’?” 

Tenzo’s glare comes back in full force, aimed at boring a hole through the other boy’s skull. He’s discovered recently that people tend to get nervous and jittery when he glares at them, but it seems to have no effect on Shisui. Typical.

“Do you have a problem with my name?” Tenzo demands icily.

Shisui raises an eyebrow. “No… do you have a problem with it?”

“Why would I have a problem with it? It’s my name!”

“Exactly,” Shisui says matter-of-factly, as if it made all the sense in the world. “If anyone was going to have a problem with it, wouldn’t it be you?”

“No it wouldn’t!” Tenzo retorts. “You’re the one who… who...”

“...who what?” Shisui laughs at him, and Tenzo can feel his face flushing with mortification. What’s wrong with this boy? There were people who made fun of him before, back in Root, but no one’s ever been this direct about it. 

“..Good morning,” A voice says behind him, and Tenzo hastily leaps from the fence post to face his captain, who looks a little perplexed. He can hear Shisui scramble up off the grass to his feet. 

“Captain.” Of all the days to be early.

Kakashi looks from him to Shisui, who is still covered in grass, and back again. “I didn’t know you two knew each other.”

Tenzo doesn’t know what to say to that, which seems to happen a lot with Kakashi. Fortunately, Shisui has no such trouble.

“We joined Anbu on the same day,” he replies cheerfully, hopping over the fence to stand next to them. 

“Hmmm.” Kakashi looks at him consideringly. “Shisui, right? Uchiha Shisui. Did they assign you a team, then?”

“Not yet, sir.”

Kakashi hums again, and for a few moments actually appears lost in thought. Shisui darts a confused glance at Tenzo, who only just stops himself from shrugging in reply. He has no idea what’s going on. 

“Speaking of…” Shisui says after a moment, “I really should be going...”

He backs away slowly until Kakashi comes out of whatever trance he’d been in and waves a hand in farewell. Shisui grins and takes off across the field.

“Nice to see you, Tenzo!” he calls back over his shoulder.

And what does that mean, Tenzo wonders grimly, watching him go and trying to think of the worst possible thing Shisui could have taken out of their interaction. He didn’t even mention that clan - the Hyuga. Or maybe Kakashi turned up before he got a chance.

Tenzo glances up cautiously at his captain, half worried that Kakashi will have had second thoughts overnight about keeping him on, but the man only gives him a half smile and gestures for Tenzo to join in a spar. Tenzo sighs (quietly).

Why is everything so confusing?

#####

Kakashi creates a shadow clone, sends it off to put his team through their paces, and retreats into the branches of the largest oak tree he can find to do some serious thinking. Propping his legs on a branch and his back against its large and comfortable trunk, he draws a kunai and absently twirls it between his fingers.

He’s still recovering from the shock of seeing Tenzo - Tenzo, his monosyllabic, rule obsessed, socially abysmal and constantly paranoid timebomb-just-waiting-to-explode - talking to a boy his own age and laughing. Or at least one of them was laughing. Laughter was definitely involved. Certainly the most animated Kakashi’s ever seen him.

He’s heard a lot about this Shisui. Different stories, from different sources; but enough, at least, to feel some pity for the boy. He knows a little about suffering for your parents’ mistakes, after all. 

The team can’t be more than four people. Someone would have to leave.

He is not considering this. Not at all.


	3. Collaboration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only crazy people deliberately put themselves in the middle of Anbu politics. Oh well. No one ever accused Kakashi of being sane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay. This was a very hard chapter to write.

“Why do you need to know this, again?” Shikaku Nara asks, leaning back in his chair and rubbing one hand over his face.

“Like I said before,” Kakashi tries to remain patient. “Team Gen is overdue from their mission…”

“...in Cloud country, yes I heard you the first time. They’re overdue by _two days_ , Kakashi. It takes two days to even get to Cloud country. You know as well as I do that it’ll be another week before anyone even thinks we should go looking for them. So what’s really going on?” 

Kakashi resumes pacing up and down the wooden floor of the study in the large Nara mansion. It’s a good room for pacing in; there’s plenty of open space and the large sliding doors on one side provide an excellent view out onto the lake.

“I think they weren’t given the correct information.”

Shikaku’s eyes narrow. He’s sitting at a low desk, a tea set laid out in front of him. There’s a tea cup on the small table where Kakashi’s supposed to be sitting, as well. “You think Anbu sent a team to _Cloud country_ , with whom we have an _extremely_ tenuous relationship, and _didn’t give them the correct information?_ ”

“....yes.”

“Why?”

Kakashi takes a scroll out of his back pocket, and hands it over. Shikaku takes it with a deeply suspicious look, and unrolls it. His eyes skim quickly across the contents, and his eyebrows rise higher with every line. 

For a long time afterwards, he’s silent. Finally he hands the scroll back to Kakashi.

“I see. But why? What possible motive could Anbu have to sabotage their own team? If they get caught, it could have disastrous consequences.”

“If they thought the end could justify the means.” Kakashi shrugs. “It’s not like we can’t deny that the team was official. They don’t have any official uniform.”

“Deny the team was _official_ ,” Shikaku immediately picks up on the salient point. “Not deny that they were from the Leaf. Why, who’s on that team that makes it so obvious?”

“Surely you’ve heard,” Kakashi begins, but Shikaku figures it out almost immediately.

“Of course. That Uchiha kid. Anbu wants him out, I suppose.” He frowns. “How do you know he’s on the team?”

“They asked me if I would take him on my team. When I went to agree, they told me he’d been temporarily assigned to Team Gen, under Taro.”

Shikaku, who has just taken a sip of tea, almost spits it out and breaks down coughing. Kakashi stops pacing and settles back down with his own cup, feeling more relaxing now that Shikaku is taking him seriously.

“You _agreed_?? Why do you want an Uchiha on your team, Kakashi? With your history?” Kakashi flinches almost imperceptibly, and Shikaku quickly changes tack. “Besides, aren’t you already supposed to be looking after that experiment of Danzo’s?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Kakashi replies coldly.

“Of course not,” Shikaku grumbles. “What do you want from me, then?”

“You knew Taro well. Where would he have gone, in Cloud country?”

#####

After his ordeal with the Hyuga clan, Tenzo does his best to keep his head down and do everything exactly by the book. He can only hope and pray that the story doesn’t make its way back to Master Danzo, even if that’s probably a foolish hope. Master Danzo knows everything.

Fortunately the world is on his side for once, because for one whole glorious week absolutely nothing goes wrong. Every day is exactly the same as the last, and in the strict routine he is able to relax a little. He finds himself more comfortable with the team: can listen to Haruto’s stories, becomes more comfortable with Mai’s silence, can even sometimes read Kakashi’s mood. 

That last one isn’t strictly true. But he’d like to pretend it is.

It was too good to last. Early one morning, Tenzo isn’t even awake when there’s a stern rap at his door. He struggles out of bed and opens it to find Kakashi, whose hair is more all over the place than usual. His one visible eye is drooping and his jacket is inside out.

“Pack a bag. Meet outside. Ten minutes.”

Apparently Kakashi is too tired for sentences. That’s ok, Tenzo isn’t awake enough to understand them anyway. He fishes his pack out of the closet, stuffs it with clothes and weapons on autopilot and only just remembers to finish getting dressed before he staggers out the door.

Outside it’s still dark. The sun isn’t even thinking about rising - won’t be for another few hours by the look of things. It’s warm for a spring morning. Summer is on the way and the woods are humming quietly with the sound of small insects. Mai and Kakashi are waiting in the shadow of the barrack wall, propped up against the wood, and they look as sleepy as he feels. Mai barely manages a nod in his direction; Kakashi hands him a bar of some kind of dry rations. Tenzo accepts it gratefully - there’s food in his pack - _hopefully, did he remember to pack that?_ \- but it’s too much effort to pull it out now. He opens the wrapper and bites into it. It’s sweet and chewy. 

None of them speak, and they stand there waiting for a minute or so before the door creaks open again and Haruto comes through, rubbing at his eyes with one fist. The early start seems to have driven him uncharacteristically silent, and he doesn’t say anything beyond a muttered _‘good morning’_. Kakashi gestures for them to form a close circle around him.

“Maa, I know it’s early. You’ve got a few hours to wake up yet, provided you can sleep while you’re running.” 

Tenzo feels a spark of interest begin to wake his sleep-fuddled mind. If they have to run so long, they must be traveling out of the village. A long way out of the village, in fact. He’s never so much as been outside the forest.

“An Anbu team was sent north into Cloud country. They’re overdue in returning. We’re going to poke our noses over the border and see if they got lost on the way back.”

“How far over the border?” Haruto asks.

“Anbu command doesn’t want us to get on anyone’s bad side,” Kakashi replies, and Tenzo can’t help noticing that he isn’t answering the question at all. “We’re just there to find our missing team.”

“And how far over did _they_ go?” Mai speaks up.

Kakashi doesn’t reply for a moment. Then he says, “Their mission isn’t our concern. This is reconnaissance only. If they have failed, we do not take over. We return and report.” He looks around them all, one at a time. They meet his eyes unflinchingly, but Tenzo notices the uneasy shift in Haruto’s stance, and the way Mai is tapping her fingers against her leg. This is to be reconnaissance, not search and rescue, so Anbu just wants to make sure that their secrets do not fall into enemy hands. In Root, it’s standard practice to kill and destroy the body of any comrade who is captured or too badly injured to flee, so that no evidence remains for the enemy to discover. Tenzo’s never had to do this himself before. He’s not looking forward to it now.

“Move out,” Kakashi tells them.

Two days later they reach the border with Cloud country. There’s been no sign of the missing team, but then Tenzo hadn’t expected to find one, so he’s a bit confused when Haruto and Mai look more and more solemn each day. He would much rather find the bodies of the already dead than deal with the alternative.

The border is marked by a stream that’s not quite large enough to be called a river, a forest on their side that opens into thick grassland on the other. Kakashi tells them to split up and search along the water’s banks. Again they find nothing.

At this point Tenzo expects that they will cross over into enemy territory, since clearly they cannot leave Leaf secrets in the hands of the Cloud nation. But they don’t. For almost an entire day they wait on the south bank, occasionally scouting east and west but always returning with not even a sighting of an enemy patrol, let alone the bodies of their own ninja.

When the sun is setting, Kakashi starts building a fire next to the water, under the canopy of the outermost trees. Tenzo watches him, startled, wondering if he might have potentially lost his mind. The forest only protects them from their _own_ side: the light will be a beacon to anyone on the enemy side of the border - is he trying to alert all the Cloud ninja in the vicinity?

The others gather around. It isn’t dark yet, but the combination of the light from the fading sun and the leaping flames cast everything into a red glow. 

“How long are we going to wait here, captain?” Haruto asks.

Kakashi leans back against a tree trunk and doesn’t answer. 

“We have to go back soon,” Haruto continues doggedly. “If they haven’t returned by now...”

“Go _back_?!” Tenzo exclaims, startled. “But…” He stops abruptly when they all turn to stare at him. 

“You said it yourself, captain,” Haruto says, when it’s clear that Tenzo isn’t going to continue. “This is not a search and rescue. We’re not supposed to cross into Cloud territory.”

Kakashi is still watching Tenzo, his single visible eye lined with enough intensity to make Tenzo stare fixedly at the ground in unconscious imitation of Mai, too embarrassed to make eye contact after his outburst. But after a moment their captain turns back to the stream and the wide open, empty grassland on the other side. 

“When it’s fully dark, we’ll cross over. Get some sleep now, it’s going to be a long night.”

“But…” Haruto protests.

“We’re not leaving them behind. Understood?”

“Yes, captain.” 

Tenzo doesn’t blame Haruto for his reluctance. But it’s their duty to keep the village safe, and if that means carrying out some unpleasant tasks, then so be it.

Tenzo is really hoping that the team they’re looking for is already dead.

Kakashi stays up to keep watch by the fire while the three of them drop into what Haruto calls the ninja’s doze - forcing themselves to fall into a light slumber by force of habit, from which they can be awakened by the smallest disturbance.

Despite only sleeping for a few hours, Tenzo dreams of an underground cave. The passageways are dimly lit by flickering torches, and water covers the ground in rivulets and puddles. It runs down the walls and drips from the roof with a quiet _plip, plop, plop_.

A figure glides silently, just out of his view. Its shadow is cast by the torchlight just behind him, and he runs, runs to escape its hissing laughter.

Then there’s a touch on his shoulder, and he wakes up with a jolt, one hand flying up to cover the back of his neck. 

Mai is standing over him, hand still stretched out as she studies him warily for a moment, then her eyes fall away to stare at the ground beside his bedroll. “Get ready. We’re about to leave.”

Tenzo takes a deep breath to calm his racing heart, and nods in acknowledgement. She moves away and he struggles out of his bedroll and stuffs it back into his pack. It’s very dark: the fire is out, the sun set hours ago and although there’s a half moon, it’s hidden behind a thick wall of cloud.

They jump the stream and set off into the wide grassland. The area is silent: the only thing they can hear is the long blades of grass whispering against their clothing as they pass through.

The moon breaks through the clouds for a moment, sending waves of pale light shimmering over the field and casting their shadows flickering into sharp relief. Then it’s hidden again and the light sweeps away into the distance, fading into the horizon where dark, distant mountains rise shadowed and threatening in the far north.

Kakashi leads them north-east so consistently that after a while Tenzo realises he actually knows where they’re going, so he must also know what their targets were doing here in Cloud country. At least they aren’t moving blind, then.

Hours later, when the sky is beginning to lighten and the first rays have tinged the clouds pink, they reach the edge of a mountain range. Set high above the plain, a large city sprawls out over one of the foothills. A few faint lights are burning in the dawn, signalling either early risers or late sleepers. Before they get close enough to be seen by any guards, Kakashi veers away and leads them towards some steep cliffs on the west side. The sheer side of the cliff is a slate-grey and looms up in front of them as they get nearer, blocking the city from view. Tenzo is expecting to set up camp at the base, where they will be as hidden as they can get without actually leaving the open grassland, but as they reach the cliffs he realizes that there are actually openings in the rock. A series of narrow passageways lead into the mountains themselves, twisting out of view into deep shadow.

“You knew this was here,” Mai says softly.

Kakashi glances at her but doesn’t reply. Tenzo is too tired to be anything but grateful that they can get out of sight and (hopefully) sleep.

They’ve been travelling at a consistent run, but when they enter the closest passageway Kakashi slows to a walk, and the others follow suit with relief. The walls are so narrow that they can only walk in single file, and the sharp granite pokes out at odd angles, threatening to trip and bruise the unwary. After only a few minutes the entrance is completely out of sight. Above them the sky is only sometimes visible - there is no roof, but the rock curves and bends to block out the light.

“Where does this lead?” Haruto asks. “We’re not going to end up in the city, are we?”

Tenzo hadn’t even thought about this, so he’s very relieved to hear Kakashi reply, “Not tonight. There’s a cave just ahead, we’ll set up camp there.”

There is indeed a cave. The entrance is hidden by a jutting outcrop of rock and leads into a moderately sized area. The floor is sandy and the ceiling is just low enough that they have to stoop to avoid scraping their heads on it. 

They don’t bother with a fire. Instead they gnaw sleepily at dry rations before Kakashi orders them all to sleep while he sets up at the entrance to keep watch. Obediently, Tenzo crawls into his sleeping roll and falls asleep as soon as his head touches the ground.

Mai shakes him awake hours later, silent but kind as she hands him a water bottle and collapses back into her own sleeping roll. Tenzo props himself against the wall of the cave entrance and entertains himself by pinpointing all the trees within his range. There aren’t many, so that soon gets boring. Instead he turns his attention to the seeds he has in his pocket. 

Using chakra to make them grow, he soon has a small cluster of green around him. He focuses on controlling that energy, and finds that he can make them move, make them twine around his arms and climb up his body. The sun is bright outside, but the cave entrance is protected from its gaze. The air is quite cool, even chilly inside the cave, and Tenzo is grateful that it’s summer. He doesn’t think he’d enjoy Cloud country in winter.

Eventually he gets tired again and pulls back his chakra. He pushes himself to his feet and goes to wake Haruto, before climbing back into his sleeping roll and returning to sleep.

Kakashi wakes him up when the sun is setting, casting an orange glow from the cave entrance and making their long shadows flicker against the rock.

They pack quickly. As Tenzo ties his sleeping gear in a tight roll, Haruto is complaining about the terrain.

“Damn Cloud country, all rocks and sand, not a tree in sight for cover. Either it’s freezing cold or burning hot, we’re lucky there’s been no lightning.”

The others don’t bother responding, which is pretty typical. In his place, Tenzo would have dropped into silence immediately, but Haruto never lets it bother him.

“And those random plants by the cave entrance, where do those come from? Like they just grow here, without any water? How does that make any sense?”

Tenzo looks over at the entrance in sudden horror; sure enough, there is a collection of small, green vines covering the spot where he was guarding a few hours ago. He must have missed them when he called his chakra back. He glances apprehensively at his captain.

Kakashi follows his gaze curiously, but doesn’t comment on the plants. Instead he calls them together, interrupting Haruto’s rambling.

“I’m hoping Team Gen will be somewhere in these cliffs. We’re going to split up and search for them. We’ll meet back here in 5 hours. Mai, Haruto, you’ll take the south side. Tenzo, you and I will go west.”

They nod. Tenzo realizes with sinking heart that Kakashi has kept them strictly paired together ever since the Hyuuga incident, never leaving him alone with the other team members. It’s fair, he thinks, that Kakashi cannot trust him after such a poor mistake.

The moon is out now, reflecting pale light against the grey rock and allowing them to see their way. The four of them split into two groups at the cave entrance, and head into the maze.

\---

The sand crunches underfoot as Tenzo follows dutifully behind his captain, the top crust crumbling into the soft grains beneath. They’ve been walking in silence for about ten minutes, making their way through a seemingly endless maze of rock passages. Most of Tenzo’s energy is focussed on remembering the way back to the cave they started from.

“Enjoying Cloud country?” Kakashi asks suddenly. Tenzo jolts in surprise.

“Uhhh… I suppose so.” Are you supposed to enjoy missions into enemy territory? _Is this a test? Has he already failed? Was he supposed to say no, because he should be focussed on the job?_

“Have you been here before?” Kakashi speaks again, before he can finish having his silent panic attack.

“No, sir.” 

“Never?” Kakashi asks idly, his mind clearly on other things as he pauses to examine a mark on the wall next to them.

“Yes,” Tenzo confirms, wondering what Kakashi is looking at. “I’ve never left the village before.” 

Kakashi glances back over his shoulder with a curious smile. “What? You’ve _never_ left the village? What about Root, don’t they send you on training missions or something?” 

“They do, but Master Danzo thought it would be safer for me to stay with Root. Because of my ability.”

“I’ve never seen you around the village before.”. 

“No,” Tenzo agrees, “Master Danzo wanted me to stay with Root.”

Kakashi frowns, abandoning his task completely. “And by ‘stay with Root’, you mean - underground? _All_ the time?”

He nods. It isn’t very exciting, but it’s better than other places. Which he’d prefer not to think about.

Kakashi doesn’t reply. He looks like he wants to say something, but in the end he doesn’t, just turns around and keeps walking. Tenzo follows obediently.

The air between them suddenly seems strained with tension, and Tenzo tries to think of something to say that will relieve it. But he isn’t sure what caused it in the first place, and with his luck he’ll just end up making it worse. 

They walk in silence for a few minutes, the soft crunch of the sand under their feet unnaturally loud in the sudden quiet. Then up ahead the passage splits into three: two wider corridors that lead left and forward, and a smaller, winding one that goes to the right. As they get closer, Tenzo spots a small symbol scratched into the rock next to the right side passage. The white rock revealed by the mark catches the light of the moon, and he recognizes it as one of the messages the Anbu use, and suddenly the mission takes on a whole new meaning. The symbol looks new, carved in the last day or so - are the members of the missing team still hiding out here? Is this, after all, a search and rescue?

Kakashi, of course, has already seen the mark and Tenzo follows as he moves forward quickly to examine it. But to Tenzo’s surprise, instead of proceeding immediately down the right hand passage, his captain begins to examine the wall of the passage in front of them. And he realizes that there is _another_ mark on that wall, though not one that he recognizes this time. 

He waits patiently for Kakashi to make a decision, wondering if the second mark is from a Cloud team, and if so, whether they had already caught up with their prey.

Eventually Kakashi turns to face him, forehead creased in a scowl. “We’re going to have to split up. I want you to take that way,” he points to the right hand path. “If you find anything, report back to the cave. Don’t engage any enemy ninja, don’t do anything reckless. If you don’t find anything in two hours, go back to the cave and wait for me with the others.”

“Uhh.. You want to split up?” Tenzo blinks, sudden anxiety clutching at him. The memory of the last time creeps up, fresh in his mind.

“Do you remember the way back?”

“Yes, I think so, but...” The words stick in his throat, and he can’t force them out.

“What is it?” Kakashi asks, voice suddenly kind.

“I thought,” he swallows, “I thought, I mean, after what happened with the Hyuuga clan…”

Kakashi stares at him for a long moment. “What are you… Oh.” 

He reaches out to grip Tenzo’s shoulder. “Look, kid, things happen. It wasn’t your fault. Next time, you’ll know better.”

Then he shoves Tenzo towards the path. “Now go on, we’re losing time.”

Tenzo stumbles forward, mentally reeling. Is he really forgiven so easily? “Yes, sir.”

He turns to watch as Kakashi vanishes into the rock without a second thought, and closes his own eyes tightly against unexpected tears, biting down hard on his lower lip. Then he shakes this momentary weakness away, because his captain has trusted him with this task, and he sure as hell isn’t going to screw it up this time.

#####

Kakashi dives into his passage with the fervor of one trying to escape from a supremely awkward situation before spontaneously combusting. He’s pretty sure if he stayed there any longer the poor kid would have started crying.

He is so exactly the wrong person for this. Tenzo needs a mother, or a father, or some loving person qualified to offer guidance and acceptance, not… him. When your own father prefers suicide to the prospect of raising you, well… that tells its own story.

How can Root keep children underground? Train them in darkness, away from the rest of the village? How can the Hokage approve of this?

Kakashi draws in a long breath. There is no point in getting angry about it. There’s nothing he can do.

If there’s anything he should have learned by now, it’s that he has only ever made things worse.

In his hurry to put distance between him and Tenzo, he almost misses the second mark that Shikaku had told him to look for, carved under a small outcrop on his left. He catches it out of the corner of his eye, and has to double back.

The confusing part is that there seems to be no other path to take, no second option. But the mark clearly indicates that he should turn.

He looks around carefully, checking for a genjutsu that would conceal any openings. Nothing. He frowns, turning slowly in a circle. Then he looks up, and grins.

Directly above the mark there is a ledge, about twice his height but still easily reachable. Kakashi runs up the opposite wall and kicks off it, landing gracefully on the ledge. From there he can see the narrow path that winds back down into the rock on the other side. 

At least Taro knows how to cover his tracks. He sets off again, hoping that no Cloud ninja have been here before him.

#####

When the moon passes behind the clouds, Tenzo finds the maze much more difficult to navigate. There are no trees here to help him feel the way. He stumbles over the rocks scattered across the path, and grazes his hand against a sharp outcrop on the wall. Hissing in pain, he swipes the blood away against his jacket and tries to ignore the throbbing.

He judges it’s been about half an hour since he and Kakashi split up, and he’s only about 50% confident that he can find the way back to the cave again. Splits in the path have become less common, but every passage looks the same. He’s seen the Anbu mark four times so far, which have kept him fairly certain in which way to choose, but it’s been about ten minutes since the last one and there was no marker at the last junction.

Tenzo’s deliberating whether or not to turn back, when he rounds a sharp bend in the rock and comes face to face with Shisui Uchiha. 

They both freeze in shock. Tenzo notes with relief that Shisui looks perfectly healthy, and not at all in need of mercy killing.

Shisui recovers first. “Tenzo! Fancy seeing you again. It’s almost like you’re following me.”

“Well, yes.” Not that he’d known who it was they were following. But technically.

“Really?” Shisui asks in surprise. “Because that’s kind of creepy, we’re all the way out in Cloud country…”

“ _My team_ ,” Tenzo says quickly, wondering if he should rethink the mercy killing after all, “was assigned to find yours. You were days past your deadline for return.”

Shisui looks almost disappointed. “Ohhhhh. Of course. That makes much more sense.” 

Tenzo looks around: there’s sharp rock all around them, but no sign of any other Anbu members.

“Are there any other survivors from your team?”

Shisui gives him a strange glance. “My team has a hiding place not far from here. Where’s yours?”

“Looking for you.”

“Right.” Shisui rolls his eyes. “But do you have a meeting place, or something? We’re not all going to wander around in this labyrinth for the entire night, are we?”

“Yes. We do… I mean, we have a meeting place.” Tenzo trips over his tongue and grits his teeth in frustration. “My captain told me to report back there if I found anything. So we should go, now.”

Shisui shakes his head. “ _My_ captain told me to report back if I found anything. Besides, doesn’t it make more sense to collect the rest of my team first?”

“My captain’s orders were to report back _as soon as_ I found anything,” Tenzo says stubbornly, determined not to make any mistakes this time. 

“But if we go to your team first, we’re just going to have to turn around and come back here to get mine!”

“But they’ll still be there.”

“Maybe they won’t,” Shisui retorts. “That isn’t the point, anyway, the point is it’s stupid to do exactly what you’re told when _my_ way is much faster.”

“It’s our job to follow orders,” Tenzo says. “It’s the leaders’ job to think. If I don’t follow orders, then it could ruin the mission or cost the lives of my teammates.”

“How is this going to cost anyone’s life?” Shisui demands. “What if we hadn’t run into each other? You’d still be lost in this giant maze, there’s no way your captain is relying on you returning by any given time.”

“I am _not_ lost!”

They glare at each other.

“I don’t care,” Tenzo snaps. “My _orders_ are - “

“Arghhh! Just think about it! It’s so much quicker to go _this_ way!”

“- to go this way!”

“...”

It takes them a few seconds to realize that they’re both pointing in the same direction.

“How about this,” Shisui says. “Let’s walk in that direction, and see who we find first.”

“...Fine.”

#####

Kakashi hears them coming long before he sees them. He’s only taking a short break, and maybe he hasn’t found Taro’s team yet, but there was that whole party of Cloud ninja he ran into a while back. Taking them all on alone probably wasn’t the smartest move, but they weren’t particularly well organized. And then he’d had to dispose of the bodies. He does feel kinda bad about that. 

The voices are loud enough to echo around the rocky passages. They’re lucky he knows who they are or he’d probably have killed them already. Kakashi spares a moment to hope that there aren’t any Cloud ninja nearby who have basic competency. Seriously, do those two realize how loud they’re being?

The answer is probably ‘no’, given how heated their discussion seems to be. Kakashi leans back against the rocky wall and waits patiently - Shisui seems to know where he’s going, so hopefully they won’t be long. At least he won’t have to decipher any more of those damn symbols.

They come around the corner a few minutes later, still arguing.

“... because it had five legs,” Tenzo is saying. “There are no lizards that have five legs.”

“My cousin saw one once,” Shisui insists, “It ran away, really fast, probably because of the five legs, but he definitely saw it.”

“If it ran away really fast, how could he possibly know it had five legs?”

They haven’t noticed him yet. Kakashi isn’t sure if he should be overjoyed that Tenzo is acting like a normal kid for once, or despair for his team - if Root can’t even teach its disciples the basics of stealth then what are they good for?. The boys walking towards him are paying more attention to each other than they are to their surroundings - if they weren’t in the middle of enemy country it would almost be cute.

Kakashi clears his throat loudly and watches with malicious satisfaction as they both jump.  
  
“Captain!” Tenzo exclaims, looking very guilty. Then he realizes that he has, at least in part, done what he was supposed to. “I found them! - or one of them.”

“So I see,” Kakashi says, doing his best to keep his amusement hidden. “And what _are_ you two doing?”

“Uh…” Tenzo freezes.

Shisui has no such hesitation. “Collecting the rest of my team, sir. And then we would have gone to rendezvous with you, but I guess we don’t need to do that anymore.”

He meets Kakashi’s eyes without flinching, that same blank smile on his face as the last time they spoke. Kakashi studies him for a moment, wondering what on earth the boy was thinking when he decided that out of all possible career choices, Anbu was the one for him.

He can tell that Shisui is wary around him, and that’s not really a surprise. Who knows what stories he’s heard from other members of his clan about Kakashi, friend-killer. He fights down the urge to make sure his sharingan is covered and keeps his hands firmly at his sides.

“Captain...?” Tenzo asks cautiously, and oh he’s been staring for too long. Kakashi lifts one hand to his face and tries to rub the tiredness from his eyes. If only there was someone else on the team he could trust to take those critical guard shifts - he’s barely gotten any sleep at all in the last week. 

“Right, your team,” he agrees much too late. “You remember the way, I hope.”

“Yes, sir.” Shisui replies, only the swift glance he throws at Tenzo indicating he finds anything strange at all. 

Kakashi gestures for him to lead the way, and he heads down the same path that Kakashi had been following earlier. Tenzo follows both of them, still looking extremely confused.

“It shouldn’t be far from here,” Shisui says.

Kakashi nods absent-mindedly, rubbing his elbow with one hand. _Quick-thinking, adapts easily,_ he notes approvingly. But hasn’t this whole mess proven that having Shisui on the team would be a really, really bad idea? The Anbu leaders already dislike him. But he’s never worried about pleasing them before.

Shisui turns out to be correct: they find Taro and the rest of the team sheltering in another cave not quite a half hour later. Taro himself is injured; there’s a gash in his leg clearly made by a kunai and more bandages wrapped around his chest. The other two, a young man and a young woman, seem relatively unharmed. They’ve evidently been in the cave for a few days. The firepit is ringed with cooking stones and bedrolls are spread around it. 

Taro is overwhelmingly glad to see him. Kakashi pulls him aside to exchange stories, but the tale goes almost exactly as he’d imagined. The information from Anbu was out of date; they ran into patrols much more quickly than they’d anticipated, and the extra time needed to shake off pursuit had made them miss the window of opportunity they’d had to get into the city. 

“If you hadn’t come along, I’m not sure what we would have done,” Taro tells him in a quick burst of candor. “The only plan I had was to hole up here until I recovered, or hope that Shikaku would send someone eventually.”

“They knew you were here,” Kakashi says, “I had to… ‘dispose’ of a search party on the way here.” 

Taro nods. “They tracked us almost from the border. We managed to stay ahead for most of it, but after I got injured...”

“Are the others injured as well? Why was Shisui out alone?” The question has been weighing on Kakashi’s mind ever since Tenzo had come back with him. Anbu work in pairs. _Always._

“No, they’re fine. I was hoping… well, I was hoping the Cloud ninja tracking us didn’t know how many we were.”

Kakashi feels his blood run cold. “You were hoping that they would kill him and think all the intruders were dead.”

Taro shrugs, an uncomfortable grimace on his face. “It’s not pleasant, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices. For the good of the mission, and the village. You know that as well as I.”

Kakashi doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have to. It’s well understood that in this situation, the person to make the sacrifice should be the team leader. That is the responsibility they carry, the duty to their team.

The silence hangs in the air between them heavily, judgingly. Taro can’t meet his eyes. “And he’s expendable, that one, the leaders said so themselves. An Uchiha, he stands the best chance alone out of all of us...” 

“He’s a _child_ ,” Kakashi hisses angrily.

“Well that’s their clan thing, isn’t it,” Taro says defensively. “They start the kids young, always fighting, it’s like they’re still at war…”

“Captain?” Another voice interrupts, an unfamiliar one this time, which is lucky because Kakashi is only a second away from doing something pretty stupid. He forces the anger away and turns to the speaker, but she isn’t talking to him. It’s the young woman from Taro’s team, who is holding out her captain’s pack, her own already strapped to her back. Taro takes it from her silently. 

“We’re all ready to leave now,” she says uncertainly, glancing back and forth between them. “If you’re ready to go...”

“Right,” Taro says, strapping on the pack and turning to the cave entrance, where the other ninja are all gathered and ready to leave. “Let’s get out of here, then.”

#####

The trip into Cloud country was fast and coordinated. The trip back feels like a slow exercise in torture. Clearly there is some kind of conflict between Kakashi and the other team’s leader - Taro, his name is. Kakashi maintains a stony silence, and his mood infects the entire team; even Haruto stays quiet. 

They leave the stone labyrinth while the moon is still rising, and make it about four hours out of sight of the city before Kakashi calls a halt. The two teams set up camp in an awkward silence. They are still out in the open, so there can be no fire, which is a shame because the air is quite cool. As Tenzo lays out his bedroll, Mai sets up hers beside him. 

“Do you know what’s going on?” She asks quietly, her eyes focused on the cloth under her fingers as she smooths it down more times than necessary.

“No idea,” he replies just as softly. “Have you worked with Captain Taro before?”

“Never. But I don’t think we were supposed to come this far north.”

Tenzo thinks about this as he pulls a set of rations out of his pack. Another person flops down on his other side, and he looks over to see Shisui grinning at him. 

“You have no idea how glad I am to be out of that place,” Shisui says, pulling open the strings on his bag and rummaging around in it. 

“Hey! Uchiha!” Haruto interrupts, his tone less than friendly. He tosses his own bedroll down at Shisui’s feet. “Your team is over there.” 

He points to the other side of their semi-circle, where Captain Taro and the other two members of the team are setting up their sleeping arrangements. Shisui looks in that direction, and then back to Tenzo, who is frozen in surprise. He doesn’t want to spend the evening arguing with Shisui again, but he certainly wasn’t expecting Haruto to send him away. But Haruto is a senior member of the team, and maybe it’s a rule that teams should not mingle? So he says nothing, and eventually Shisui gets to his feet and moves his pack over to his own team. But Tenzo notices there is a large gap between their bedrolls and his own.

He glances left, but Mai is clearly pretending not to notice. On her other side, Kakashi is watching them with the same hard expression on his face that he’s had ever since he spoke to Captain Taro. 

Haruto straightens up his sleeping roll with a satisfied huff. Tenzo eyes him warily, and Haruto notices his gaze. 

“Uchihas, eh? Gotta watch out for that lot.” 

_That lot?_ Tenzo had thought Shisui was the only Uchiha around, but maybe the other members of his team are from the same clan? He looks at them carefully, but the girl is blonde and fair while the boy has brown hair and green eyes. They look nothing like Shisui, who really does stand out with his black curls and dark red eyes.

Tenzo and Mai take the first watch, which is pretty uneventful. He can’t decide if he’s relieved the mission went so smoothly, or disappointed to have gotten all the way through Cloud country without seeing a single enemy ninja. From listening to Shisui’s stories, Cloud ninja are proud, rash and quick to rush into battle, so maybe it’s a good thing after all. After all, people like that can’t be relied on to act rationally.

The time passes quickly. Mai is a good watch partner: she’s quiet, but in a calm way, and since Tenzo prefers to stand guard without talking, they spend their assigned hours in relaxed, peaceful silence watching as the sun rises. Tenzo is secretly glad to have the first watch. He loves seeing the sky slowly change from pink and yellow into blue, hearing the birds singing their early morning chorus and smelling the clean scent of dew on the grass. 

When it’s time to wake up the next pair, Tenzo eyes the sleeping form of Captain Taro with reluctance. So far he’s been successful at avoiding any interactions with the other team’s leader, unsure what kind of issue Kakashi has with him but certain of where his own loyalty lies. Mai notices his hesitation and smiles, gesturing for him to go to sleep as she goes over to rouse Captain Taro.

Grateful but guilty, Tenzo burrows quickly into his sleeping roll. He hears muffled voices on the other side of the fire, and a moment later Mai’s soft footsteps as she settles down next to him. For a long time he lies there, wondering if he should thank her, but when he turns over to see her face she’s already asleep. 

_Drip, drip, drip. A fire glows in the darkness, far away. Splash, splash, splash. Footsteps are coming closer. Snake eyes, glowing green…._

Tenzo wakes with a start. At first he thinks it was the dream that woke him, but then he realizes there are voices. Angry voices, hissing at each other, but he can’t make out what they are saying. Dazed, he pulls himself up to look around. 

Kakashi and Haruto are sitting a little ways from the fire. They seem to be arguing. His movement disturbs them though, because they stop talking and look at him instead. Not wanting to intrude, Tenzo lies back down and turns over, his sleep-fogged mind easily falling back into the endless, dark water.

The next night is even worse than the last. Neither captain will say a word. Haruto is now also refusing to speak to anyone. The tension in the air is so high that everyone jumps at the slightest movement. Mai impales a rabbit with a kunai when it leaps out of a bush in front of her. Shisui is grim-faced and trails behind the group, refusing to look at anyone.

They travel through the night and into the next day without stopping. Tenzo is so tired he can barely stay upright, but the sight of the village gates is the best thing he’s seen since the soldiers came to take him away from the nightmare place. Even though he hadn’t realised what was happening at the time.

“You’re all off duty,” Kakashi croaks. Tenzo gets a good look at him for the first time in two days and suffers a shock - their captain’s skin is grey and he’s swaying with strain, his visible eye drooping. “Report tomorrow. Sleep now.” 

They are all too tired to think of arguing. They split without a word, desperate to sleep in soft beds after so many nights sleeping on the hard ground - or not sleeping at all.

Tenzo doesn’t pay any attention to his teammates as they file into the Anbu barracks, but when he thinks back later this is the last time he sees Haruto for a long time.

They had returned to the Leaf village at about midday, but Tenzo falls into bed and doesn’t wake until the next morning, when his stomach rouses him with loud hunger complaints. Fed and rested, he heads out to the training yards.

Mai joins him on the way, whether by coincidence or if she was waiting for him, Tenzo isn’t sure. But when they reach the field and see that Kakashi is already waiting for them, he knows something is going to happen. 

Their captain beckons them over. Tenzo and Mai glance at each other, but he can’t read anything in her face. 

“I have news,” Kakashi tells them. “Haruto has requested a new assignment.”

He pauses, perhaps waiting for them to say something. Tenzo, who hadn’t realized that Anbu members _could_ request reassignment, thinks that as captain, waits patiently to hear the next part.

“So today we are getting a replacement,” Kakashi continues, when it becomes clear that no one is going to say anything. “So, ahhh.. let’s go get him.”

They’re walking down a corridor inside the Anbu headquarters when Tenzo gets a glimpse of who is waiting for them in the room ahead and suddenly freezes. Mai keeps walking, but Kakashi drops back beside him.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s _Shisui?_ ” Tenzo hisses frantically. “He’s our new team member?”

Kakashi scratches his head with one hand. “Maa, is that a problem? I thought you two were friends.”

“Why would you think that?” Tenzo struggles to keep his voice low. “We are not friends. We are the _opposite_ of friends!”

“Well, aside from our team, he’s the only person I’ve seen you speak to of your own accord.” Kakashi points out dryly. “Where I come from, that generally makes you friends.”

“He hates me!”

“I really doubt that,” Kakashi says gently. “Just… give him a chance, ok? He’s had some trouble with his last squad.”

“Yes, sir.” Tenzo drops his eyes to the ground, suddenly ashamed. What was he thinking, speaking out like that? It’s not his place to question the decisions of his superiors. He has merely to obey. It’s only because Kakashi is Kakashi that he hasn’t already been disciplined. He repeats words ingrained in him from Root. “I apologize for speaking out of turn, captain.”

Kakashi continues to unconsciously defy everything Tenzo has ever expected from his commanding officers and puts an encouraging hand on his shoulder. 

“It’ll be alright, you’ll see.”

Mai is waiting for them at the doorway, the faint tap of her right foot betraying her impatience. Kakashi rejoins her and Tenzo trails behind them, mentally steeling himself for this next encounter. 

Inside the room an older man sits behind a desk, his face stern and uncompromising. Kakashi greets him with a nod of the head. “Sir.”

Tenzo expects them to kneel, himself poised to follow their example, but both of them just stand there, waiting. To the side is Shisui, also standing, and looking uncharacteristically subdued. His face is blank and his eyes are fixed on the floor in front of him. He’s the picture of a proper ninja. It looks wrong, somehow.

“Kakashi.” Anbu’s head remains seated, his face unreadable behind his white mask. His desk is clean, paper neatly stacked in front of him, not a pen out of place. “I am assigning Uchiha Shisui to your team. Concerns have been expressed. You understand the possible repercussions?”

Keeping his eyes firmly downcast, Tenzo pricks up his ears. _What possible repercussions?_ His captain doesn’t blink an eye. “Yes, sir.”

Their commander gives them all a sharp, searching glance before waving one hand in dismissal. “Very well, then.”

Kakashi leads them out of the room, and Tenzo takes the opportunity to steal a glance at Shisui as he follows him out. Of all things that could have happened, now just when he was getting comfortable with his teammates? 

This is the worst thing ever.


	4. Allegiances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Danzo makes another appearance, and does his best to reassert his authority

The next day, Tenzo receives a summons from Root: Master Danzo expects him to report immediately. Instinct kicks in and he’s halfway to the Root complex before he remembers that he really should have told his captain before going. It seems rather silly to go all the way back to Anbu now though, especially since in his experience reports to Master Danzo don’t take very long: loquacity is not encouraged at Root. Surely Kakashi will understand. Still, he feels a twinge of guilt as he descends into the underground entrance.

Master Danzo is waiting in his office. It’s just as he remembers: really it’s as if he never left. Even the wooden paperweight carved in the shape of a fox has not moved. It sits on the desk, staring down at him as he kneels respectfully. 

“You summoned me, master?”

“I did.” The commander of Root drums his fingers slowly and deliberately along the wooden surface of his desk. “I trust your Anbu assignment is going well?”

“Yes, sir.” No one’s told him otherwise, at any rate.

“I believe you have a new member on your squad. An Uchiha?”

“Yes, sir. Uchiha Shisui.” It’s almost strange, not to feel a twinge of annoyance at the mention of that name. Being inside Root makes it so much easier to control his emotions. 

“And what do you think of him?”

Tenzo blinks in surprise. He’s never been asked for an opinion before. “Sir?”

“Have you seen the boy in combat?” Master Danzo leans forward, hands clasped in front of him. He seems almost eager.

“No, sir. He.. he was only assigned to the squad yesterday.”  _ Why is he so interested in Shisui? _

“I see.” He leans back and sighs, as if disappointed. “Are you aware of the Uchihas’ special abilities, 17201?”

It’s a jolt, hearing his number instead of his new name. Barely more than a few weeks have passed, yet he’s grown used to it so quickly. “No, sir.”

“The Uchiha clan has been known since before the village’s creation for their battle prowess,” Root’s highest ranked teacher begins to lecture. “They possess a Kekkei Genkai that resides in the eye, and bestows powerful abilities on its bearer. I have heard that this particular Uchiha has an especially powerful one.”

That explains why Shisui is a part of Anbu then, despite his young age and general lack of Anbu-related skills, like (to name a few) stealth, discipline and emotional control.

“Should you witness this young man use his Kekkei Genkai,” Master Danzo continues, “You will provide me with a full report. Leave nothing out.” 

Tenzo bows his head obediently, but can’t help wondering why all the interest. Surely nobody could see Shisui as a threat to the village? Or does Root wish to recruit him? He knows better than to ask - he hasn’t been gone that long! - and when he’s dismissed he leaves in silence.

#####

Danzo watches the door slide closed, and purses his lips in consideration. On one hand, his favourite graduate and future weapon seems to have settled nicely into Anbu, and is still responding satisfactorily to commands. On the other, from the reports of Danzo’s other plants in Anbu, he has taken his own name and appears to regard Hatake with some kind of hero-worship. It remains to be seen how much trouble this will cause, but it’s at least worth keeping an eye on. At least the Uchiha boy is a pleasing development. 

He rolls his shoulders to release a cramp, and imagines what he could do with the kind of power that child possesses. It’s a heady image. Normally he would not have divulged such potentially corrupting information to a subordinate, but 17201 has never suffered from such things as ambition or a lust for power. And in this case, the benefits outweigh the risks. He needs first hand information if he is to find a way to take that power for himself.

#####

From the rooftop of a building two streets away, Kakashi watches his second-latest charge walk away from Root headquarters and back (presumably) to Anbu. It could be a coincidence that Danzo Shimura summoned him to report as soon as he found out that one of the Uchiha’s emerging stars had been assigned to the same team.

Perhaps.

Kakashi doesn’t believe in coincidences. At least, not a coincidence as blatant as this one is. He’s going to have to report this to the Hokage. He isn’t looking forward to it either, because he likes Tenzo. There’s no malice in the kid, just a sometimes aggravating desire to do everything exactly right, and exactly by the book. It’s understandable, considering where he came from. Kakashi can sympathise. Anbu has a lot of ninja like that; he is by no means a minority. 

More troubling is this tendency to obey without question. Two weeks is a short time to earn someone’s loyalty, but Kakashi is still a little disturbed that the boy responded instantly to Danzo’s summons, and without informing him. It probably says more about Danzo than it does about Tenzo, but still. The point remains, and the Hokage will have good reason to question the kid’s loyalty.

Personally, Kakashi would like to shut down the whole Root operation. There are acceptable methods to train ninja, and Danzo Shimura’s are not among them. Tenzo is not the first damaged teenager he’s seen come out of that hellhole.

But in the meantime he has to obey his Hokage’s orders, and that means trying to make a team out of a kid who’s never learnt any social skills, another one that doesn’t care about the social skills he does know, and a woman who believes ninja don’t need to interact with anyone at all.

No one seems to realize that  _ teamwork _ means working  _ with _ your team, not around them.

It’s enough to send a guy into an early retirement.   
  


#####

_ Plink.  _

_ Plink plink pink. _

_ Water runs everywhere. It swirls under his feet, runs down his back and trickles along his arms. He hears it dripping down rocky walls, hidden in the dark, too dark for him to see.  _

_ But it’s only dark because his eyes are closed, shut tight because he’s asleep - or at least he was asleep. But when he opens them, two reptilian eyes are staring back, right in front of him. They blink slowly, in mild curiosity. Long, pale fingers hold up a syringe, filled with a yellow fluid. The needle glints silver and sterile. _

_ More fingers grip his head, holding him still. _

_ Those eyes are still watching him, calculating his every reaction with a scientific interest. _

_ Then pain erupts at the back of his neck; sharp, piercing, all-consuming pain that sends roots of fire down his back and into his chest. _

Tenzo wakes up screaming.

He jolts upright in bed, hands clenched tight over the back of his neck. His breathing comes in short gasps as his body struggles to pull in enough air.

The book he was reading the night before falls to the ground with a thump.

Early sunlight trickles through his window and traces delicate patterns on the floor beside his bed. There’s no one else in the room. 

Tenzo bites down on his lip until his teeth cut through the skin and blood trickles down his chin. He struggles to control his breathing, to force himself to slow down, to breathe deeper, to calm his heart rate.

He pulls his legs into a meditative stance with shaking hands and focuses on his own chakra, repeating over and over in his head the chant that has soothed him ever since he joined Root. 

_ I am alone, I am alone, I am alone. _

When he feels calmer, he realises there’s something brushing against his shoulder; a soft, gentle touch that somehow feels like sunshine, rain and cool shade all at the same time. He turns his head to see a branch - or several branches. The tree outside his bedroom, he remembers. He must have grown it accidentally.

Tenzo strokes the leaves softly. It almost looks like the tree has reached in to comfort him, which makes him smile. And if he whispers a soft  _ thank you _ as he pulls the tree back into its original shape, there’s no one there to judge him.

The Anbu grounds are quiet, though not empty, when Tenzo makes his way there. It’s still early, Kakashi won’t arrive for a while yet. He takes up his favourite perch on the fence where he can look out over the forest. The great trees have a calming influence, he’s found.

This is the first time his dreams have had such a strong effect since joining Anbu. Perhaps it came back because he felt more settled, perhaps it was because of his visit back to Root the day before. Either way he needs to pull himself together - he absolutely cannot allow his own mental weakness to interfere with his duty to his team.

And then, of course, there’s the new member joining the team today. No matter what he does, he can’t quite figure out Shisui Uchiha, so he’s going to need to be extra alert and watchful - especially since Master Danzo is so interested in him.

It’s ironic, then, that he’s so focussed on being alert and prepared that he doesn’t notice his name being called, and it’s not until there’s a light touch on his arm that he realizes someone is standing behind him.

He whirls around, startled, and Shisui skips back, holding his hands up in a placating gesture.

“It’s just me, don’t freak out!”

Shisui eyes him warily, obviously remembering their last encounter at this fence.

“It being you seems  _ more  _ of a reason to freak out,” Tenzo retorts, before his horrified brain can catch up to his mouth. Why, oh why could he not just say something normal?

“What? Hey, no, that’s unkind!” Shisui protests, slowly lowering his hands and inching forward now that the danger has passed. “You wouldn’t freak out just for me, would you?”

“You’re very early,” Tenzo says quickly, trying desperately to change the subject.

“So are you.” Is the obvious reply. Seriously, how did he not see that coming? Good job, Tenzo.

At that moment, an Anbu kunoichi releases a barrage of projectiles at her training target. Tenzo catches the glint of a needle, and a twinge of phantom pain has him flinching and his right hand instinctively covers the back of his neck.

“Wow, you’re really twitchy, aren’t you?” 

Shisui is looking at him strangely. Tenzo can’t decipher it, so he snaps back quickly.

“I am not!”

“Okay, okay.” He holds up both hands again, eyebrows raised. “Clearly, you are a model of tranquility. My mistake.”

Tenzo glares and takes refuge in silence. He’s found this is the most effective method of dealing with Shisui, who cannot seem to bear silence for any length of time and who will inevitably start chattering about something unrelated in an effort to have some kind of conversation.   
  
"Mai's a Nara, isn't she?" Shisui asks, immediately proving him right. "Does that mean she's really smart? My mother said..."

Tenzo tunes out whatever Shisui's mother said, because he has just spotted Kakashi approaching them with Mai in tow. He jumps off the fence and stands up straight to wait for them. On his left, Shisui spots the others as well and waves to them happily. "Hey guys! Good morning! Let's get started!"

Tenzo wishes he'd stayed in bed.

He wishes it even more when he finds out that now they have another new member, they have to repeat all the training they did when Tenzo first joined. Kakashi calls it learning to work as a team; Tenzo thinks it's more like finding every complicated situation and taking a blind stab at any course of action. He doesn't find it any easier than the last time.

In the evening, when the sun is going down and Tenzo is thinking longingly of food and sleep, an Anbu operative comes to find them. By the way Kakashi immediately calls their training to a halt, Tenzo can tell that this is going to be something important. 

#####

“Please tell me we’re getting paid overtime for this,” Shisui grumbles as they dash through the trees. There’s barely any moon tonight, making it that much harder to pick out anything through the gloom of the forest. Pakkun is just up ahead, hard on the heels of a group of enemy shinobi. 

Kakashi rolls his eyes in amused exasperation - of all people to be complaining, it should  _ not _ be the only one with two fully functioning Sharingan. At least he can see where he’s going.

Kakashi raises one hand to the band over his eye, considers removing it for a moment. But Pakkun’s taking them down an easy path, and none of the enemy pose any threat in terms of strength.  _ Just in terms of classified intel _ , he thinks wryly, and picks up the pace.

Their targets must know they’re running out of time, because suddenly Pakkun veers sharply to the left. Kakashi follows without missing a step, checking behind him to make sure the rest of his team has caught the change of direction. Mai is tailing on his left flank, keeping at a good distance with the ease of experience. Tenzo, on the other hand, is following a little too closely and paying too much attention for a simple chase, while Shisui trails too far behind and is paying so little attention that Kakashi is surprised they haven’t lost him already. 

It’s a work in progress.

They bound past a huge oak tree, and Kakashi glimpses a figure up ahead as it leaps away. They’re close now, so close. 

Then Pakkun stops abruptly, and Kakashi lands next to him; it’s a large branch overlooking a clearing in the forest. A kunoichi stands below, kunai drawn - obviously she’s stayed behind to gain time for the others to escape. They must be pretty desperate to get that intel back to the Sand village. Unfortunately for them, the Leaf village is just as desperate to keep it secret.

She’s had no time to set up wires or bombs, so Kakashi wastes no time and leaps into an attack before the rest of his team can even catch up. He dodges the shuriken she hurls, feints to the right and ducks low under her kunai, and then spins to slam his heel into the back of her knee. She goes down hard. Kakashi kicks away the blade and presses his knee into her lower back to keep her on the ground, just as his three teammates land beside him.

Mai quickly pulls out a rope to secure their captive, and Kakashi is left with a conundrum. They can’t take the girl with them, she’ll slow them down. Can’t kill her; T&I need to find out how she got into the village. Can’t leave her here alone; she needs a guard. He  _ should  _ leave Mai, since she has the most experience, but he also has a feeling the two ahead will split up, and he needs to be able to do the same. Shisui is out of the question - for obvious reasons - so that leaves Tenzo. 

He hesitates for a second. He’s still not sure where Tenzo’s loyalties lie, or whether the kid is really trustworthy enough to be left alone. But it’ll be a couple hours max, it’s a simple task, and he does seem painfully eager to do everything right.

Surely it’ll be fine.

Mai has finished binding the prisoner; he’s already wasted too many seconds on this decision. His team is looking at him questioningly, and they have to catch the other ninja. Tenzo will have to do.

“Right, Mai, Shisui, you’re with me. Tenzo, you’re staying with her. Keep her here, keep her alive, ok?”

Tenzo salutes, body rigid with determination. “Yes, captain.”

Is that salute something they teach in Root? He should probably be grateful that Tenzo doesn’t do the whole drop-to-one-knee thing every time he talks.

Pakkun doesn’t wait for an order, but hurls himself back on the trail. Kakashi follows immediately, the other two right behind him. 

The enemy has made good use of their distraction, and it takes Kakashi just under an hour to catch up to them. It’s a pretty boring chase, to be honest: just trees and more trees flashing by as they leap from one branch to another. 

He knows when they start getting close again, because the two remaining ninja split. One goes southeast, one goes northeast. Kakashi sends Pakkun, Mai and Shisui in one direction, and chases the other down by himself. 

Five minutes later, the trail runs out. The shinobi’s body lies propped against a tree, an empty poison capsule on the ground where it slipped from one outstretched hand. Kakashi walks over slowly, staring down at the corpse in a mixture of pity and revulsion. He’s going to have to carry it back too - the shinobi didn’t bother to destroy his body, so it probably doesn’t hold any secrets, but it never hurts to be thorough.

The man’s face looks familiar. Kakashi’s eyes narrow - it’s enough (no, too much) to be a coincidence. Where does he know this man from?

When it comes to him, he turns and  _ bolts  _ back into the forest. The corpse lies abandoned behind him. If the Hokage wants it, he can send someone to get it later.

  
  


#####

  
  


Tenzo is pacing.

He starts from the west side of the clearing, scans the trees for any signs of movement, then marches over to the east side, checking north and south as he goes, to scrutinize the trees on the other side. The captive watches him warily, her eyes tracking his every moment. She hasn’t said a word since the others left, which was about an hour and a half ago, but that really just works in Tenzo’s favour. If she were making a racket he’d have to shut her up somehow, and he’s not particularly keen on explaining to Kakashi how she got beat up.

A leaf crackles somewhere to his left and he spins sharply, scouring the trees. There is  _ someone _ out there, he’s sure of it - too many leaves have crackled for it to be happening naturally.

Or maybe he’s just paranoid.

Master Danzo has always told him to second guess his instincts, because he tends to see or hear things that aren’t really there (like snake eyes and dripping water). His judgement is questionable, so he should always look to others - to his superiors - for orders. He will never be considered for leadership roles, because he cannot be trusted to determine the correct course of action to take.

But here and now, there is no one. No Danzo, no Kakashi, no superiors. Just Tenzo, and his questionable judgement. And the water constantly dripping at the back of his mind.

Another leaf crackles, and there’s a kunai in his hand before he realizes he’s reached for one. His captive has turned her head as well, so he definitely didn’t imagine it this time.

Then there’s a  _ snap _ and another  _ crackle _ and a form steps out of the shadowy trees into the clearing. Tenzo blinks and the blurry outline condenses into a man, or more precisely a ninja. It’s someone from Root, he realizes after a moment - one of the senior members who work directly for Master Danzo.

The man approaches slowly, not revealing his hands but not making any threatening moves either. Tenzo finds himself caught in a dilemma: does he bow, or is this ninja not technically his superior anymore? Especially since Kakashi has left him in charge of the captive, and showing that kind of weakness is a good way to quickly lose control of the situation. He contents himself by inclining his head and shoulders in a half-bow, but straightens up after a moment.

“17201,” the Root agent says, “you know who I am?” “Yes, sir.”

“Hmmm.” He seems disapproving. Tenzo has a sinking feeling that he was expected to drop to one knee. “I come bearing orders from Master Danzo. The woman you have apprehended is to be taken back to the headquarters immediately for processing and interrogation.”

Tenzo was afraid of this. But all the rules say that while on mission, his immediate loyalty should be to his captain, and no one else.

“My captain has ordered me to guard her here until his return.” He manages to keep his voice steady and firm.

The agent scowls. “This is an extremely sensitive situation that  _ must _ be dealt with immediately. You will hand over the captive now.”

“My captain is Kakashi Hatake,” Tenzo says, still vaguely hoping that a compromise might be found, “and when he returns, I’m sure he will be able to help you…”

“Operative!” The man snaps, and he flinches inwardly. So much for that plan. “Are you refusing to follow my orders? Orders that come directly from Master Danzo himself?”

Tenzo stares at him in dismay. What should he do? If he disobeys Kakashi, his captain, he will be thrown out of Anbu - the only goal he’s ever had in life. But if he disobeys Master Danzo, he will be sent back to that place. Back to the darkness.

He cannot argue further. Doing so would be worse than useless; Root agents do not brook questioning from their inferiors. The decision must be made, but he can’t bring himself to do it.

And then suddenly, to his overwhelming relief, the decision is taken from him, because Kakashi himself comes hurtling out of the shadows to land in the space between them.

He must have done something very good recently, Tenzo thinks, to have earned this much karma. His captain is facing down the Root agent, arms sternly crossed, and Tenzo has never been so happy to see anyone in his entire life.

“Can I help you, agent?” Kakashi inquires coldly. His casual demeanor falls away like a discarded cloak, and he looks as tightly wound as a cobra ready to strike.

The Root agent doesn’t seem so pleased. Quite the opposite, in fact, and Tenzo remembers belatedly that he will have to face Master Danzo himself at some point, and without Kakashi to hide behind.

“As I was saying,” the man continues after a moment, “my orders are to bring this woman in for questioning.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Kakashi replies evenly, “since I have similar orders. But as mine come directly from the Hokage, I’m afraid you’ll have to take it up with him.”

The other man inclines his head in silent defeat. His next words are through gritted teeth. 

“As you say.”

He fades back into the shadows, just like the way he came. Tenzo finally breathes out, and feels suddenly light headed. He glances at Kakashi in slight apprehension, wondering if he is about to be scolded for not being able to deal with the Root agent by himself.

But Kakashi gives him a rare smile and claps him on the shoulder.

“Good job,” he says, and while Tenzo’s standing frozen in surprise he strides over to the captive and pulls her to her feet. “Let’s get this one back to Inoichi.”

When he returns to his barrack room, Tenzo finds a message from Master Danzo, ordering him to report as soon as he returns. This time he intends to inform Kakashi first, but his captain is not easily found. A quick search of the Anbu premises reveals nothing, and he can’t bring himself to ask his colleagues - not least because he doesn’t know any of them, but also because it feels a little too embarrassing to ask for the whereabouts of his own captain. So he goes to Root anyway, because keeping Master Danzo waiting is a Very Bad Idea.

He leaps through the trees in a hurry, though if he truly wanted to make up time he should have gone through the village. It’s faster, being in a direct line, but Tenzo prefers to go through the forest. Being surrounded by so much wood has a calming effect on him. He’s already in trouble anyway. 

A Root operative shows him into the main study, where their master is seated and reading through paperwork. His cane is resting against the wall to his right, and he does not look up as they enter the room. The operative announces Tenzo, then swiftly steps out and closes the door behind her.

Master Danzo raises his head from his desk with agonizing deliberation. Tenzo feels a clench in his stomach: he can tell by the look on his master’s face that he has failed expectations. Those condemning eyes bore into him as he drops to one knee and bows his head further than normal.

“You are late.”

Is that the only thing he’s done? “Yes, sir.”

Tenzo forces himself not to twitch in the awful silence that follows. He stares at his boots and promises himself that next time he will not delay for anything.

“I realize,” Master Danzo’s voice is cold, his speech calculated. “That things in Anbu are different from what you are used to. I do hope,” here he pauses again, and Tenzo thinks he can feel the gaze on the back of his neck grow more intense, “I do hope that you will not develop any  _ bad habits _ from these people. The Hokage may tolerate such disrespect.  _ I _ do not.”

“Yes, sir.” Tenzo says miserably, horrified at himself. “I meant no disrespect, sir.”

He hears the shift of cloth as Master Danzo leans back in his chair.

“Very well. I would hate to think that  _ you _ , of all my subordinates, would choose to disappoint me. You remember, I hope, how lucky you are to be a part of Root at all?”

A cold wave rushes through Tenzo, and for a moment he’s not in Root at all, but back in that horrible place where the only smell is death and the only sound is water. He shudders, forcing himself back to the present, and manages to choke out,

“Yes, sir.”

“Very well.” Master Danzo says again. “Your report, then.”

It’s difficult to get the words out. Tenzo opens his eyes wide and glares hard at the lacings on his right boot as he struggles his way through the report. At least with his head bowed, no one can see his face. 

When he’s finished, he hears the scrape of wood against the floor of a chair being pushed back. Footsteps approach him, but he doesn’t dare look up. 

“Your report is satisfactory, 17201.”

He barely has time to feel a flood of relief that this, at least, he hasn’t screwed up, when there’s a blinding flash of pain in his left hand. Then there’s a  _ snap _ as his little finger breaks. Tenzo grits his teeth and doesn’t make a sound. He has no right to complain.

After a moment, Master Danzo lifts his cane and walks back to his desk. Tenzo draws in a deep, shaky breath as slowly as he can, trying not to move. At least he doesn’t actually use that finger. He’s gotten off lightly.

“You will not be late next time.” It’s both a statement and a warning, and Tenzo agrees earnestly. Then, finally, he is allowed to leave, and as soon as he is out of the Root compound he makes a dash for the sanctuary of his Anbu barrack room. 


	5. Getting Alonge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tenzo and Shisui learn to coexist without killing each other. Almost.

Getting dressed the next morning is a challenge. Tenzo had iced and strapped his left hand the night before, but the broken bone is throbbing painfully as he maneuvers it through his gear. He grits his teeth against the sting when he removes the strap, but he can’t let anyone see that he has an injury - advertising his own weakness to teammates is a mistake from his time at Root that he’s not eager to repeat.

He’s able to put the pain out of his mind during training, and for several hours he can forget the injury exists. Then Kakashi comes up with the brilliant idea to split into two groups to practice infiltration techniques, using Anbu hand signs to communicate, and Tenzo discovers that he was being a little optimistic when he thought he wouldn’t have to use his broken finger for anything.

Shisui is assigned as his partner, and they lose spectacularly three times in a row before Shisui loses his temper as well, and demands to know where the hell Tenzo learned hand signs.

“Because this is the second time you’ve told me that Mai is wearing a hat, and it’s neither relevant nor true!” He snaps, pulling himself out of the ditch that Mai has thrown him into (for the second time in the last 10 minutes). He gestures wildly in front of Tenzo’s face. “This is how you sign ‘left’. See, ‘LEFT’.” 

Tenzo bats him away with a glare. “I know what the sign is.”

“Then _use_ _it_. What do you think this is, a game?”

This is, of course, wildly hypocritical, since Shisui takes almost nothing seriously and Tenzo is about to comment on that fact and several others, when Kakashi intervenes by stepping between them.

“Enough, you two. Tenzo, show me the sign you’re using.”

Grimacing, and inwardly cursing himself for getting into this mess in the first place, he holds up his hands. It’s sloppy, because he can’t quite force that little finger to move into the right position. It’s also very painful. Kakashi, who has seen him use this same sign several times before, raises an eyebrow.

“What happened to your hand?”

“I… broke my finger. Yesterday,” he says, and prays they won’t ask him how it happened.

“Have you seen a healer?”

Is that something he’s allowed to do? Root healers are only for people who actually need healing. “Um.. no. Captain.”

Kakashi sighs and drags a hand through his hair. “Hospital. Now.”

Obviously this is one of the things he’s supposed to know but doesn’t. He’s saved from having to admit that he doesn’t know where to find the hospital by Shisui, who grabs his arm and drags him away.

“ _ You _ don’t need to see a healer,” he grumbles, but follows anyway.

“I’m not going to see a healer,” Shisui says. “You are.”

“So why are you coming?”

Shisui gives him a patient look. “You don’t go to see healers on your own. Other people  _ take _ you to see a healer.”

“Why?” A broken finger doesn’t impede his ability to walk, or navigate. Just his ability to communicate, apparently.

“That’s just how it is.” 

They walk in silence for a while. It’s close to midday, and Tenzo can smell freshly baked bread. He’s wondering if stopping for lunch on the way to the healer would be unprofessional when he hears Shisui mutter something under his breath.

“What was that?”

“I said, you could have told me your hand was broken.”

“It’s not my hand, it’s my little finger.”

“Whatever,” Shisui snaps. “You could have at least worn a strap or something. I know ninja in general don’t like going to the hospital, but that doesn’t mean you just pretend like everything’s fine.”

“Why don’t ninja in general like the hospital?” Tenzo asks, curious. Instantaneous pain relief is not something he’d turn down lightly.

“Because… um..” Shisui glares. “That’s not the point.”

“What _ is _ the point?”

“Never mind,” Shisui huffs, turning away pointedly. Tenzo rolls his eyes. This definitely qualifies as sulking.

Inside the hospital, Tenzo watches in awed fascination as a medic focusses healing chakra onto his hand. It’s kind of a pretty glowy green. 

Shisui stands awkwardly off to the side, twisting his hands behind his back. Why he decided to hang around here when he’s clearly uncomfortable is anyone’s guess.

By the time the medic has finished, the finger is no longer broken. Tenzo can tell because when he shakes his hand - gently - the bones don’t grate painfully against each other. It still twinges a little, but the medic assures him that tomorrow it will be as good as new. Then the man hurries away to his next patient, and Tenzo takes the opportunity to take in the entire room. There are a few other shinobi around, bearing a variety of non-lethal injuries and all looking quite as uncomfortable as Shisui. It’s almost as if they expect to be attacked by the very medics treating them. How incredibly strange.

“What’s up with you? Anyone would think you’d never seen a healer before.” 

Tenzo glances up from where he’d been studying a nearby healing in progress. Shisui scowls dubiously at him from over crossed arms. 

“No.”

Shisui blinks in confusion. “No what?”

“No, I’ve never seen one before.” Tenzo agrees mildly.

“You can’t be serious.” He uncrosses and then crosses his arms again restlessly.

“Why not?”

“Are you telling me there are no medics in Root? What happens when people get injured?”

Tenzo shrugs. “They deal with it.”

“But..” Shisui starts to say something, then thinks better of it. “Is your hand fixed now?”

He nods; somehow it is indeed fixed. He pokes at it again to make sure, harder this time - maybe the jutsu is just a temporary thing? Shisui swats his hand away. 

“Leave it alone, idiot. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

It seems the healers really know what they’re doing, because three days later Tenzo’s hand is still healed and hasn’t caused him so much as a twinge of pain. He can’t say the same for Shisui, who is hovering behind him like an annoying moth, irresistibly drawn to the nearest spark of light, and only managing to get in the way as he tries (with admittedly little success) to get a fire going. Kakashi has taken Mai to scout and left them to set up camp about a day’s journey out of the village. There’s no expected danger, which is why they’re trying to light a fire with wood soaked after two days’ worth of rain.

“Why are you taking so long? If the fire doesn’t get started soon, it won’t get hot enough to cook anything on.”

He’s not even going to ask which of their pre-packaged, dry rations Shisui intends to cook. “The wood is damp. You’ll just have to be patient.”

“If you heat it up, it’ll dry out quicker.”

Tenzo gestures to the pile of wood stacked up around his meager flame. “What do you think I’m doing?”

Shisui sighs impatiently. “Let me do it.”

“And what exactly do you plan on doing?”

“Just move, out of the way, come on..” He tugs Tenzo to his feet and pushes him out of the way. Then he draws in a deep breath and blows onto the pitiful fire - except what comes out of his mouth is not air but a stream of flames. Their campfire roars to life: so does all the spare wood Tenzo had painstakingly gathered - enough to last them through the night - and carefully stacked around the firepit where it could dry out. In seconds there is a two meter high blaze in the middle of the clearing, and flames are leaping out with dangerous enthusiasm toward the surrounding brush.

For a moment they survey the damage in strained silence.

Tenzo breaks it. “Oh you’re right,” he says flatly. “This is much better. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before.”

“Go to hell,” Shisui snaps, looking definitely panicked now. “Shit. What do we do? How do we put this out?”

“Maybe you should blow on it again,” Tenzo suggests, not feeling particularly charitable. “That fixed the problem last time.”

“You’re such a jerk,” Shisui complains, diving over to drag the closest gear away from the more adventurous flames. “The captain is going to be back any minute. What’s he going to think when he finds our whole camp on fire?”

That’s definitely a low blow. He’s well aware that Shisui doesn’t give a damn what Kakashi thinks, and is just trying to manipulate him into solving a problem that he had nothing to do with in the first place. The worst part is, it works, because Tenzo knows full well that if he does nothing, the blame will fall on him. It always does.

So he forms a quick water jutsu - nothing fancy, just enough to dampen the fire - and pretty soon it’s reduced to a nicely sized campfire. There’s some residual hissing and spitting from the occasional stray droplet, but otherwise it crackles away without issue. He thinks he’s managed to save enough wood that he won’t have to go looking for more either, so that’s a relief.

“Huh,” Shisui says, and maybe Tenzo’s seeing things but he looks a little guilty. “I didn’t know you could use water jutsu.”

“Lucky for you,” Tenzo retorts, stomping over to his pack and digging out the first pack of rations he can find. Then he flops down to the ground and props himself against a tree and glares up at his teammate.

Shisui avoids his eyes and twists his hands behind his back. “Yeah.. So, about that..”

He’s interrupted, however, when Kakashi and Mai drop out of the branches next to them. Their captain glances around at the singed campsite and raises an eyebrow. 

“What exactly happened, here?”

Tenzo scowls pointedly at Shisui. 

Shisui holds up both hands and smiles innocently. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

In the end, their mission goes off without a hitch. Tenzo should have known it was too good to be true when they get almost all the way back to the village without any signs of enemy ninja. 

12 hours out, they’re ambushed. 

In hindsight, Tenzo knows he was careless, that he let Shisui’s loud and exaggerated story (which is really just him complaining about something his cousin did) distract him from more important things - like keeping a proper lookout. In his defense, it seemed to have distracted everyone else as well.

Being so close to the village must have lulled even Kakashi into a false sense of security, because they’re all a little slow to react when the cliff side above them suddenly explodes into shards of flying dirt, raining down in a cloud of dust. Tenzo catches the flash of metal, and instinctively brings up a wall of earth to shield them. 

An enemy ninja lands on the wall - the next second it too, is exploding. Tenzo stumbles back, coughing, as Mai’s shuriken streak past his ear and their opponent curses and leaps away. They both glance at their captain for orders.

Kakashi breaks away from the cliff and leads them into the forest, away from any more traps, giving them a second to regroup. They have better cover in the trees, and it forces the enemy ninja to reveal themselves.

Tenzo pulls a kunai from his belt and steels himself for the upcoming fight. Three figures appear through the leaves to face them - clad in black, masked - they could be from anywhere. But definitely favouring earth jutsu, he notes. Probably from Iwagakure, then. Strange, that there would be only three of them; it’s more common to face a team of four.

Kakashi signals for them to wait; Shisui either ignores him or doesn’t see, but leaps into battle, hurling kunai before him. Two of the enemy rush to meet him, the third begins to perform some kind of complicated jutsu. Kakashi snarls curses and runs after him.

Mai and Tenzo exchange a quick, horrified glance: what to do now? Does Kakashi’s previous order still apply? Or are they all to just throw themselves into the fight, with no plan whatsoever?

It seems to be the latter. Kakashi has engaged the third enemy, while Shisui is trading blows with the other two. After a frozen moment, Mai dashes over to make it an even fight (although Shisui seems too fast for either ninja to land a blow, even two against one). 

As the others fight around him, Tenzo hesitates, unsure if he should help Kakashi or the others, and just as uncertain about how to do it. Throwing a kunai is just as likely to hit a teammate as an enemy. In all of his Root training, he was always facing a superior force: outnumbering the enemy is an unfamiliar situation for him.

But just when he’s decided that an earth jutsu would be a good idea, he sees movement in the ground just behind where Shisui and Mai are quickly overpowering their opponents, and realizes that there was a fourth enemy after all. A shockwave hits the clearing before he can react, knocking everyone off balance. As Tenzo struggles to regain his footing, he sees the ground literally open up to swallow Mai and Shisui.

But somehow the Uchiha manages to get his feet underneath him quick enough (and he really is fast, so fast that Tenzo can barely follow him) and grab Mai, pulling her up out of danger and landing on a low-hanging tree branch. Another shockwave hits, stronger and more targeted this time, and the tree topples over. Shisui and Mai leap from the crashing branches in opposite directions; Mai grabs the shuriken at her belt and hurls them. One makes contact, but it’s not a serious wound. The ninja comes after her, she dodges his strike and kicks him in the knee.

The other two follow Shisui. He twists in the air to breathe fire at them, but one blocks with a wall of earth while the other sends another shockwave just as he touches down on the ground.

Shisui stumbles, gasping, and the two enemy nin see their chance. Kunai and shuriken come flying, and Tenzo reacts without really thinking about it. Looking back, he will curse himself for his stupidity, but in the moment the enormity of what he’s doing doesn’t occur to him.

He slams a seal into the ground and reaches with as many tendrils as he can find to snatch Shisui out of harm’s way. More vines seize the enemy ninja, binding them in a green prison. Shisui yells in shock when he’s jerked off his feet and dragged across the ground, but the missiles aiming for him hit the trees behind him instead, which is all that Tenzo really cares about.

Or at least it is until Shisui gets his head up, sees the apparently sentient plants that have wrapped themselves around his lower legs, and freaks out. Tenzo can only watch in horror as he gulps in a huge, panicked breath and, like a  _ complete _ idiot, spits fire at his own feet. 

The plant tendrils turn to ash, incinerated by Shisui’s fire jutsu. The underbrush and mast around him go up in flames as well. Dimly, Tenzo can hear Kakashi yelling on his right and vaguely realizes that Mai has taken out her opponent. Most of his concentration is going into separating his chakra natures and bringing enough water down on Shisui to put out the fire without injuring his comrade any further.

He doesn’t realize he’s rushed forward until he’s leaning over Shisui, taking in the damage to the Uchiha’s legs and feet. The skin is blackened and cracked, not bleeding yet but Tenzo knows from painful experience that it soon will be.

“What the  _ hell _ were you  _ thinking _ !?” He summons more water and pools it around the worst damage, trying to cool the skin and mitigate the burn. 

“It was a living plant,” Shisui defends himself indignantly. He’s not even flinching, though the pain must be excruciating. Tenzo’s grudgingly impressed. “What would you have done?”   


“That  _ was  _ me, you idiot!” He checks on the others, because he can multitask, but there’s really no need. Kakashi has taken out the last enemy and is heading over to them. Mai is hovering in the background.

“You have sentient plants?” Shisui asks doubtfully.

“I  _ control _ the plants,” Tenzo says.

“Well you could have mentioned that  _ before _ .” Shisui grumbles.

“I was too busy trying to save you from being skewered! How was I to know you’d try to fire-bomb yourself?” 

“I didn’t ask for your help,” Shisui mutters under his breath, just as Kakashi arrives to crouch at his side and peer grimly at his burned legs. He offers a sheepish grin. “Sorry, captain.”

“Can you walk?” Kakashi asks.

Tenzo eyes him doubtfully. Perhaps he  _ can _ walk, but  _ should _ he? Kakashi catches his eye and must agree, because he grimaces and rephrases. “OK, stupid question. Tenzo, take that side. Let’s get you back to the village.”

“Hey,” Shisui protests, as they pull him upright between them. “I can walk by myself.”

“I’m sure you can,” Kakashi agrees, not breaking stride. “You can tell the healers all about it.

When they reach the hospital, Kakashi stays just long enough to hand Shisui over to the medics and then bolts. If Tenzo looks hard enough, he thinks he can still see the dust rising in the distance.

Mai murmurs something behind him. 

“I’m sorry?” Tenzo asks.

“I said, he doesn’t like hospitals,” she says, studying the lobby floor with intent. “Most people don’t.”

That’s pretty much what Shisui told him earlier. Tenzo turns his head to stare at the door the healers had taken him through. Is this his fault? Master Danzo is always so insistent about not revealing anything - to always keep one’s abilities hidden, to never give away one’s weaknesses.  _ Knowledge is the ultimate weapon _ . But if Shisui had known about his abilities, then he wouldn’t be in the hospital right now.

Mai says something, but again lost in thought, he doesn’t hear her, and has to ask her to repeat once more.

“You should go home,” She says, gently, almost kindly. “They won’t let us see him for a while yet.”

“Mmm.” Tenzo agrees. Burns like those will take at least a few days to heal.

Mai puts her hand hesitantly on his shoulder. “It isn’t your fault, you know. These things happen. We’re ninja - we deal with it.”

He looks away from her, unable to reply, because she’s wrong. If he hadn’t messed up, then this wouldn’t have happened, and they wouldn’t be here, waiting…

“You saved his life. He knows that. Everyone knows that, it’s just you beating yourself up. Don’t.”

She looks him straight in the eye as she says it, and he’s so surprised he stares back at her. Then she squeezes his shoulder and walks away. It isn’t until she’s out of sight that he realizes she saw the Mokuton as well. 

Many years later he will realize that she had probably already known. Anbu is notorious for leaking secrets, and the Nara clan can figure out pretty much anything given enough clues. Not that he was particularly subtle anyway. 

Years later, he will realize this. But not right now.


	6. Confidences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shisui just wants a friend. Tenzo doesn't understand the concept of friendship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all the lovely people who commented and liked my story! I really appreciate your taking the time to let me know you enjoyed reading ♥️

The woman at the reception desk is writing steadily, pen moving with sharp, precise movements over a sizable stack of paper. A large clock hangs on the wall behind her, stern black hands in stark contrast to the clean white walls. The ticking second hand punctuates the sound of scribbling; it and the receptionist’s pen the only sounds in the otherwise empty room. He approaches in some trepidation, but he hasn’t even got to the desk before she speaks, without looking up. 

“Name?”

“I.. I beg your pardon?” 

She taps the desk impatiently. “Who are you here to see?”

“Shisui.. Uchiha?”

“Oh. The Uchiha.” She snorts and rifles through the pages stacked neatly in front of her. “Nasty burns there. I heard the idiot did it to himself.”

Normally, Tenzo would agree with her. What kind of fool spits fire on  _ themselves _ ? But there’s something off about her, something not right about the way she says it. No doubt he’s got twisted expectations from spending so much time with Kakashi. 

“What room?”

“3rd floor, room 12.” 

She goes straight back to writing, as if he weren’t still standing there. Tenzo glances around and finds two sets of stairs, one to his left and the other on his right. He briefly debates asking for more precise directions, but he’s startled by the clock, whose second hand has finally finished its rotation and triggered the minute hand, which shudders forward with a reluctant but loud  _ tock _ . Feeling strangely anxious, Tenzo turns to find his own way.

The stairs are crowded with medics, ninja and just ordinary civilians, all hurrying either up or down. Tenzo tries to avoid bumping into anyone and eventually finds himself on the third floor. The doors to each room are labeled, so he follows the decreasing numbers. It’s much quieter up here, and by the time he passes door 20, the corridor is basically empty. A couple doors further down, and he can hear raised voices bleeding out into the hallway.

His worst fears are confirmed when he comes to a halt in front of door to room 12. He isn’t sure what the words are, but he knows the tone. He’s heard it many times in the past. Is Shisui part of Root as well?

Well, he knows better than to barge into a room while that kind of thing is happening. So he waits patiently outside the door, until the voices quiet down and the corridor is silent once again.

Tenzo expects the person to leave now, but there’s a very uncomfortable wait until the door finally opens and a man and a woman step outside. They seem very surprised to see him.

“What are you doing here, boy?” The man asks.

Tenzo bows his head as far as he can. He doesn’t recognise them, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t from Root. “I’m here to check on my teammate, sir.”

“Hmph.” They both consider him for a moment. “Don’t stay long. He needs rest.”

“Yes, sir.” He doesn’t move until they leave.

Inside the room, Shisui is theoretically lying in bed but really appears to be staring fretfully out the window, using most of his chest and shoulders to do so. His legs are heavily bandaged and tangled with the hospital bed sheet. It doesn’t look like he’s resting at all.

He is very surprised to see Tenzo walk through the door.

“Tenzo! What are you… wait, when did you get here? How long were you outside?”

“A while,” he replies, noticing Shisui’s flinch. “Were those your... instructors?”

“Instructors?” Shisui asks blankly. “What - no! They’re my parents.”

“Oh.” Tenzo thinks about it, and decides that Shisui’s parents probably aren’t in Root. “What were they doing here?”

Shisui sighs. “What are  _ you _ doing here?”

“I didn’t know when you’d be coming back. To the team. Mai said Kakashi hasn’t visited you.” 

“No, he hasn’t.” Shisui leans back against the pillows and rakes a hand through his curls. “He’s probably worried about running into my aunt or something.”

Tenzo has no idea what he’s talking about. “Kakashi doesn’t like your aunt?”

“My aunt doesn’t like Kakashi,” Shisui corrects. He takes in Tenzo’s confused expression and shrugs. “It’s a long story.”

“...okay.”

“You’ll probably find out later. Can you find a nurse or someone, and get them to let me out of here?”

“You’re supposed to be resting,” Tenzo says disapprovingly.

“I’m gonna go crazy stuck in this room by myself,” Shisui complains, grasping at the bedframe with shaking hands and trying to haul himself into a sitting position. 

“Don’t do that,” Tenzo protests, starting to get a little panicked. Shisui does not look well enough to be moving around that much.

“I can’t stay here! It’s so empty - there’s no one here.”

“If I stay here, will you rest?”

Shisui pauses his attempts to get out of bed, looking over at him in surprise. “You’d stay here with me?”

“If you stop moving around.”

“...okay.”

#####

“Kakashi! Over here!”

Gai’s voice unmistakeable, even in a noisy, crowded bar. Kakashi balances two jugs of beer and dodges two clearly intoxicated shinobi to sink into the empty chair opposite him. 

“I haven’t seen you for weeks!” Gai complains, taking one of the jugs and pouring two glasses. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your old school mates. There’s no time for letting Anbu take over your life - you have to embrace your power of youth!”

Kakashi just shakes his head and takes a long drink from his glass, letting Gai’s over enthusiastic comments wash over him. He has a lot to think about.

Tenzo had come to him earlier in the day, and proceeded to ask, in the most roundabout way possible, if it was ok that the other members of the team knew about his mokuton powers. Or at least, that’s what Kakashi  _ thinks _ he was asking. He might have been asking Kakashi to make sure that Danzo never finds out that they know, and Kakashi thinks about Tenzo’s broken hand and feels sick. 

Shisui is still in the hospital. Kakashi hasn’t brought himself to visit yet, but he’ll have to soon, if only to find out when his team will be combat ready again. He should definitely be visiting for a better reason.

It’s not really about the hospital. He can handle the hospital. It’s just that he really doesn’t want to see one of the older Uchiha -  _ and what if it’s Obito’s mother? _

There’s no logical reason Obito’s mother would be visiting Shisui in the hospital.  _ Except that she’s his aunt. Or something. _

He’s briefly startled by a  _ thump  _ on the table next to him. “Are you even listening to me, Kakashi?” Gai demands.

“Maaa, it’s been a long day…” he replies, and instantly tunes out again.

He will have to talk to Mai. The Nara are generally clever enough to not go spreading rumours (or even truths) around the village, and she seems decent enough - but he’s been wrong before.

#####

Shisui gets out of the hospital a few days later, with only a slight limp to tell he was ever burned. Master Danzo never comments on Tenzo’s extreme ineptitude at keeping his most important secret, which leaves Tenzo grateful but confused. Either it’s ok that his team knows about it, or Kakashi made sure that the story never got back to him. Honestly it’s probably the latter, but there’s no way Tenzo is going to have that conversation again. He’ll just have to make sure the subject never needs to come up again.

#####

Autumn comes around, bringing with it coloured leaves and cool winds. Shisui starts wearing a long piece of woolen cloth that he calls a scarf to training sessions. The head of Anbu receives intelligence that Cloud ninja have been seen around a village to the north, well inside Leaf territory. They have a contact, apparently - someone inside the village who is providing them with both information and a safe hiding place. Team Kakashi is assigned to investigate. 

The trip north is a slow one, because they are trying to flush out any spies that might be trying to infiltrate further south. They don’t find any.

When they eventually reach the village, it’s a quiet, peaceful place - barely more than a cluster of houses around an inn.

They have to be cautious, Kakashi explains. If the Cloud realizes that Anbu is looking for them, they will evacuate and the contact will never be discovered.  _ This means _ (and he looks sternly at Shisui when he says this part) that they must be  _ discrete _ . That means  _ not drawing any attention. _ Shisui mutters rebelliously but agrees. 

The team stakes out the inn for 2 days. During this time Tenzo never sees a single Cloud ninja, or anything suspicious at all, really. 

And then the merchants arrive. There are three of them - two have kunai concealed in their jackets and the other twitches every time a bird calls in the forest. They’re clearly not merchants. 

They head straight to the inn, where the innkeeper comes out to meet them. They talk, and then the four of them go off into the forest. 

Team Kakashi watches them go, and exchanges glances.

“That seems very easy,” Mai says. 

“That was  _ way _ too easy,” Shisui agrees. 

“Hmm,” says Kakashi.

Tenzo doesn’t say anything at all.

“Tenzo, Shisui, wait here and keep an eye on the inn,” Kakashi orders. “Stay out of sight.”

“Why do you always leave me behind with Tenzo?” Shisui grumbles. “It’s like you don’t trust us.”

Tenzo gives him a slightly hurt look. Shisui hasn’t openly complained about his company for a while - he’d actually thought they were getting along better.

Kakashi glares and motions for silence. Then he and Mai vanish into the forest after the ‘merchants’, and it’s just the two of them left there in the tree.

“This is so boring,” Shisui complains. “What does Kakashi think is going to happen? More Cloud ninja are going to turn up?”

Tenzo doesn’t reply. He’s found it’s better not to engage with Shisui when he’s in this kind of mood.

Finding he isn’t getting a reaction, Shisui soon falls silent as well. The sun shines down on them through dappled leaves, as they sit there in the tree branches. A cool breeze floats in from the direction of the river, keeping them from getting too hot. It’s actually quite pleasant, and Tenzo is just beginning to enjoy it, when the innkeeper's wife comes out of the inn. 

She looks around cautiously, and then she puts her fingers to her mouth and whistles, long and low. A door in one of the nearby houses opens, and a man slips out of the shadow and walks over to her. On the branch beside Tenzo, Shisui sits up straighter.

“What’s going on?”

The innkeeper’s wife and her new friend vanish back into the inn, and Shisui and Tenzo look at each other.

“I take it back. Kakashi is a genius,” Shisui says.

Tenzo already knew that. “So who did Kakashi and Mai follow, then?”

“I don’t know. But we have to figure out what’s going on down there.”

“Kakashi told us to stay out of sight,” Tenzo protests.

“So we’ll just listen. But we can’t stay here, come on!” Shisui slides down the tree and darts into the shadow of the inn, and Tenzo follows reluctantly. 

They sidle around the walls until they hear voices coming from the window above them. Shisui strains upwards, but the sound is too muffled. 

“Lift me up,” Shisui hisses. “I can’t hear anything.”

“No!” Tenzo whispers back. “They’ll see you through the window, and you won’t be able to hear any better anyway.”

Shisui doesn’t answer; instead he finds the closest open window in the wall they’re hiding against, and leaps up to pull himself through it.

“What are you doing?!” Tenzo hisses after him. “Come back here!”

There’s no reply, and he hesitates in painful indecision. The last time he climbed through an open window at Shisui’s urging was a disaster. But he can’t just let Shisui go in there alone.

He waits too long. Inside there’s a  _ thump _ , and then a scream follows. Hesitation gone, Tenzo leaps for the window and dives in the room. 

It’s empty. There’s a door open into a hallway, and on the other side of the wall he hears an exclamation, footsteps, kunai being drawn and then the sound of a scuffle, and then there’s silence for a moment.

Suddenly there’s a loud  _ crack _ and part of the wall on Tenzo’s left flies outward, leaving a fist sized hole. Kakashi’s last command was to stay out of sight - he can’t think of many things more noticeable than bringing the village inn to the ground. Fortunately, it’s only the work of seconds to form a seal and use his Mokuton to repair the gap. 

There’s an angry shout from his left, though it doesn’t sound like Shisui. This time the wood explodes in a cloud of dust - probably from an exploding tag. It had better not be Shisui causing such wanton destruction, Tenzo thinks grimly as he patches up the wall yet again. They were specifically told to  _ not draw attention _ .

“ _ Haunted! _ ” Someone shrieks from the other side. “This place is haunted!”

Tenzo hears the sound of the door being thrown open and then through the window catches a glimpse of a man tearing down the street as if demons were chasing him. 

“Tenzo?” Shisui’s voice sounds from somewhere close by.

“Why’d you let him go?” Tenzo asks, trying to keep track of the man’s flight path in case he needs to track him down later.

“He’s not a Cloud ninja. But Tenzo, I think this place  _ is _ haunted.” He turns to find his teammate peering at him through the doorway, looking embarrassed but no worse for wear. “The wall just fixed itself. No matter what he did, it just came back together.”

“That was me, you idiot. And what do you mean, he’s not Cloud?”

Shisui gives him a skeptical look. “You have a house repairing jutsu?”

“Don’t be stupid. I told you, remember? I control plants.”

“Well last I checked, Tenzo,” Shisui retorts, “unless that guy was far more advanced with genjutsu than I expected, this isn’t a plant!”

“Wood,” Tenzo explains patiently, rapping on the wall beside him, “comes from trees.”

“But it’s dead!” Shisui objects.

“Doesn’t matter.”

“ _ Huh. _ ” Shisui looks vaguely impressed. “Like the first Hokage, then?” 

“Ahh… what?”  _ What does the Hokage have to do with this? _

“Does that mean you’re from the Senju clan?” Shisui asks, not waiting for him to finish.

Tenzo shrugs, feeling more and more uncomfortable with this subject. “I don’t know.”

“How can you not know?”

“I  _ just don’t _ .” He is definitely not going to have this conversation now. “How do you know that man wasn’t a Cloud ninja? And what about the woman, shouldn’t we find her?”

Shisui flushes bright red and grabs Tenzo’s arm, pulling him through the still open door and out of the inn. “Let’s not do that.”

“What’s going on, Shisui?”

“Let’s just say she was, uh, taking advantage of her husband being out.”

“...oh.”

“And let’s not tell Kakashi about this, ok?”

That’s a false hope. When they return from dealing with the real Cloud ninja, Kakashi demands to know why the entire village has turned out to exorcise the inn, and collapses into slightly hysterical laughter as soon as Shisui gets halfway through the story. Even Mai is laughing by the end.

They leave the village to the exorcism. The trip back to the Leaf village is a pleasant one, even with four Cloud prisoners.

#####

Tenzo lives in one of the Anbu barrack rooms. It’s almost twice the size of his room back in Root, and he doesn’t have to share it with anybody, which is a definite if unexpected bonus. It has a bed, a dresser, a desk, a weapons rack and a bookshelf, which Tenzo has been slowly filling with books found whenever he gets time off. It’s quite exciting, really, to have things, actual possessions, of his own. At the start he’d assumed that everyone in Anbu lived in the barracks, but Kakashi has his own apartment in the village (Tenzo has seen it once, when Kakashi needed to fetch some extra kunai and brought him along for the trip), and Shisui lives in his parents’ house in the Uchiha compound. So out of his three teammates, only Nara Mai lives in the barracks, and her room is in a different building. 

The result is that Tenzo finds himself living in a building full of strangers, which is still more or less what he’d expected from the start. The other Anbu come and go silently at odd hours, keep to themselves and don’t really speak to each other, which is also what Tenzo expected Anbu to be like. Somehow, it’s just his team that is different. But he’s starting to not mind very much.

The barrack is almost always completely silent, and especially so late at night. Perhaps that’s why Tenzo suddenly jerks awake, the kunai he keeps under his pillow grasped in one hand. He stays frozen for a few moments, eyes and senses frantically searching the room for possible threats. There’s nothing but shadows, and eventually he slowly lowers the kunai. He’s just preparing to go back to sleep when he hears a sound outside his door. It’s a faint sighing, scraping sound, as if cloth had shifted over the wall outside. 

Tenzo waits patiently and then hears the sound again. This time he slips noiselessly out of bed, kunai clenched tightly in one fist, and creeps over to the door. He turns the handle with agonizing slowness, careful not to make a sound, and then jerks the door inward, ready to face whoever happens to be lurking outside his room.

He doesn’t expect Shisui, who had evidently been sitting in front of the door and leaning back on it, to tumble onto his floor with a thump. He blinks up at Tenzo drowsily.

“Hey.”

Tenzo stares at him, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why Shisui would be practically sleeping outside his barrack room. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Well, I was gonna knock, but then I figured you’d probably be asleep, and I didn’t wanna wake you…” Shisui trails off with a yawn.

“Why aren’t you in  _ bed _ ?”

“They don’t have beds in the corridors,” Shisui informs him.

“I mean, why aren’t you at  _ home _ in bed?” Tenzo’s too confused to be angry.

Shisui shifts uncomfortably and stares at the ground. “It’s really loud there. I wanted some peace and quiet.”

“So you decided to come here?” 

Shisui doesn’t reply, won’t even look at him, and Tenzo suddenly remembers the day he visited Shisui in the hospital.

He sighs. It makes sense, he supposes, that Shisui would go to the quiet of the Anbu barracks if it was too loud at home.

“You can’t sleep in the hallway. You’ll give someone a fright and they’ll stab you.  _ I  _ almost stabbed you.”

“S’fine.” Shisui stretches languidly and shuffles over to the wall next to Tenzo’s desk. 

“I’m good here.”

Tenzo scowls at him for a long moment. He’s having trouble keeping his eyes open and he’s so tempted to just go back to sleep. But eventually his conscience gets the better of him, and he stomps over to his travel gear and tugs out his sleeping roll. Just to prove he’s not happy about it, he tosses the roll at Shisui’s head. 

Shisui yelps when it hits him, jerking backwards in shock and banging his head into the wall behind him. He sits up clumsily, rubbing the back of his head and glaring reproachfully at his teammate. Tenzo ignores him and heads right back to bed, flopping down onto his futon with a grateful sigh. He’s asleep in seconds.

_ There’s someone - no, some _ **_thing_ ** _ \- in his head. It probes at his thoughts, coils around his mind. Everywhere it touches, it leaves a slime that clings and defiles. It violates his soul without remorse, without empathy, and methodically records everything it finds.  _

_ Somewhere, he can hear a voice screaming. _

_ The pain in his neck is back, at first a sharp sting and then burning, burning, burning. The reptilian eyes above him stare back, emotionless to his suffering. _

_ “ _ **_Tenzo!_ ** _ ” _

_ That’s his name, he remembers dimly. The screaming wavers. _

_ The eyes blink at him, surprised. It’s never addressed him before. It’s never addressed any of them. It doesn’t believe they have names, doesn’t know they can be addressed. _

“Tenzo!”

He jolts awake and upright. His right hand instinctively covers the back of his neck. He tries to breathe in, but it feels like his lungs won’t open. Panicking, he inhales faster and faster, trying to get enough air.

“It’s ok.” Soothing hands settle gingerly at the edge of his shoulders, away from his neck. “Calm down, it’s just a dream, you’re ok. Breathe out now, ok? You have to breathe out.”

Still half convinced he’s about to suffocate, Tenzo manages to huff out the air in his lungs. It’s a lot more than he remembers breathing in.

The next time he tries to take a breath, it comes easily. Without the threat of imminent asphyxiation, he realizes that Shisui is perched on the bed next to him, and a deep sense of shame crawls up from his belly. It’s bad enough that he still has these dreams, but why does Shisui have to  _ acknowledge _ it? At least in Root people had the decency to pretend that nothing was happening. 

The bed shifts, and footsteps away lead him to hope that maybe Shisui will just leave without comment, but soon enough they return and he looks up reluctantly.

Shisui is holding out a glass of water. Tenzo takes it carefully - his hand is still shaking - and sips gingerly just so that he won’t have to say anything. His right hand is still clenched over the back of his neck, so he grits his teeth and forces himself to lower it. There aren’t any needles in this room, after all.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah.” He mumbles, determinedly not making eye contact. 

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Shisui asks cautiously.

“No!” Tenzo says quickly - too quickly, and he attempts to make up for it by continuing, “I’m sorry for… waking…” His throat catches - it’s sore from screaming, he realises - and he takes another drink of water to soothe it.

“Don’t worry about it,” Shisui says cheerfully. “It’s pretty normal around here, the walls are really thick for just that reason, so you probably didn’t even wake anyone.”

That’s…. not really what he meant, and obviously not true, since Shisui is clearly awake, but he doesn’t feel like arguing so he merely shrugs and drains the last of the water.

Shisui reaches out to take the glass from him. “Do you want any more?”

Tenzo shakes his head and Shisui stands to put it on the shelf. “Do you think you’ll be able to go back to sleep?”

“I guess…” He studies Shisui’s face while it’s turned away from him. It doesn’t look any different.

“That’s good,” Shisui says, and then breaks off into a massive yawn that he tries unsuccessfully to cover with his forearm. “Night, then.”

Tenzo watches him crawl back into the bedroll and curl up, where he appears to promptly fall straight back to sleep. 

What if he tells Kakashi about this? Or reports it to the higher-ups in Anbu? But doing so would reveal that he was in the barracks, and Tenzo is pretty sure that if you don’t live here, you’re not supposed to be here at night. So Shisui will be in trouble too.

He stares down at the dark head, with its curls spread carelessly against the bedroll and wonders, not for the first time, what exactly its owner is thinking.


	7. Reliance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tenzo and Shisui become closer - but Shisui and Kakashi are at each other's throats, and Tenzo has no idea why.

Winter is a quiet time for the Leaf Village. Maybe it’s because of severe storms up north, but there’s no news from Cloud country. The snow falls lightly in the land of Fire and never settles - Shisui complains that he cannot build a snowman (whatever that is). Kakashi reminds him that it is the same every year.

The Hokage sends them to the Land of Water to hunt a missing-nin. The trail is old and the nin is clever, and they don’t find him. Tenzo doesn’t care much for the constant rain and the unfriendly, suspicious villagers, and the only part he enjoys is when Mai teaches him how to skip stones across the river. In the end they return home empty-handed.

When the winds blow from the south again, the air gets warmer and the days start getting longer. Morning training sessions are heralded by birdsong. Daffodils spring up next to the Anbu barracks.

Then one afternoon the team is summoned to the Anbu headquarters. Only Kakashi is allowed inside, but there are other teams waiting outside as well. 

“What’s going on?” Tenzo whispers to Mai. She always seems to know the latest Anbu gossip.

“I heard they discovered an old hideout nearby,” she whispers back. “Abandoned, but whoever it was seems to be pretty important.”

“He must be pretty skilled to live so close and still avoid the whole village. Or she,” Shisui adds hastily when Mai glares at him.

Soon enough, Kakashi reappears and beckons them away from the others.

“Maa, ready to go?”

Tenzo and Mai exchange amused glances. Shisui, who still isn’t used to Kakashi yet, scowls in confusion. “But where are we going?”

“This way,” Kakashi says, starting to lead them in a vaguely northerly direction. 

“But what’s in this direction?” Shisui demands.

“A lot of things,” their captain replies mildly, not bothering to glance back. “Including us, in a few minutes.”

At this point Shisui is almost audibly grinding his teeth, and Tenzo decides to intervene before it devolves into another argument.

“Captain? Can you tell us what the mission is?”

“To check out a cave just north of the village.” Kakashi replies. “Some kids found an abandoned lab.”

“ _ Why couldn’t he just say that in the first place? _ ” Shisui grumbles next to Tenzo’s ear, and he rolls his eyes. There’s no logical explanation for why Kakashi does things this way, and there’s no point in expecting one. Better to just go along with it.

“We’re checking for traps, then?” Mai asks.

“Mmmm,” Kakashi agrees.

Shisui huffs. “Sounds like the kids already did our job for us.”

“Don’t let your guard down,” their captain warns, suddenly serious. “The Hokage thinks it belonged to one of the Sannin.” 

Shisui immediately goes quiet, and now it’s Tenzo’s turn to be confused. “The Sannin?”

He knows immediately that he’s betrayed another shocking lack of knowledge, because the others all turn to stare at him.

“You don’t know the  _ Sannin _ ?! What, you’ve never heard of the  _ three legendary ninja _ ? Did you sleep through every one of your history classes?”

Tenzo scowls. “You’re projecting, Shisui.”

“If I were projecting, I’d be telling you how amazing it is that I  _ know _ all these things,  _ despite _ having slept through all my classes.”

“The only  _ amazing _ thing..”

“Stop  _ arguing _ , children.” Kakashi says firmly. “It’s a long walk to the cave. Why don’t we try making it in silence?”

The cave entrance is hidden behind trees, rocks and brush. There are signs of disturbance around it, which suggest that a pair of 10 year-olds had pushed their way in at some point in the recent past. Tenzo follows at Mai’s heels as they make their way inside, stepping carefully on an uneven floor littered with stones.

The ferns fall back into place once they push through, leaving the cave in darkness. Kakashi raises his hand and summons a flame, casting a flickering glow over all of them. Further behind them, Shisui does the same. 

Kakashi examines the entrance thoroughly before allowing them to progress any further into the cave. A set of roughly carved stone steps lead down into darkness, but they seem to be unguarded. If this really was the hideout of some legendary ninja, Tenzo thinks, surely they wouldn’t be so careless as to just leave it here. He redoubles his efforts to find some kind of trap, but there’s really not much cave to search without going down the stairs.

“There’s nothing here.” Shisui says, crossing his arms and lounging back against the stone wall. His eyes look strange, maybe reflecting the light from the fire he’s still holding in his hand.

Kakashi walks over to peer down the stairs, leaning as far forward as he can without overbalancing. “If this belonged to one of the Sannin, we have no idea what kind of things could be waiting for us.”

Shisui scoffs. “I promise you, there is  _ nothing _ here.” He gestures to his eyes. “You would know that, if you looked properly.”

Tenzo almost trips over his own feet. What on earth does Shisui mean by that? He’s never been so blatantly rude to Kakashi before, and Tenzo looks at their captain in trepidation, wondering what his response will be. 

One of the Root trainees had insulted a teacher once. He had been taken away, and Tenzo had never seen him again.

For a long moment the room is silent. Then Kakashi turns around, and Shisui doesn’t hold his gaze for more than a second before he looks away. 

But to Tenzo’s surprise, he doesn’t say anything. Just steps forward onto the stairs.

Nothing happens.

Kakashi moves down to the second step. Still nothing happens. Tenzo tries to breathe out, and realizes he’d forgotten to breathe in. 

“This is stupid.” Before anyone can stop him, Shisui darts past Kakashi and leaps down the stairs, the flame in his hand casting hideous shadows above their heads. Tenzo and Mai rush forward, but stop at the edge of the steps, both unwilling to go further.

“Shisui!” Kakashi shouts after him, but it’s too late. Shisui has already reached the bottom and the light he’s casting reveals an old passageway leading deeper underground.

Kakashi mutters something under his breath that Tenzo doesn’t catch. “Follow me closely.  _ Don’t  _ run off.  _ Be careful _ .”

Tenzo follows his captain down the stairs slowly, eyes scanning everything, tensed to move the second anything starts to move. Up ahead he can hear Shisui moving around, but at that moment Kakashi reaches up and adjusts his headband to sit level on his forehead. 

Tenzo has never, ever seen Kakashi’s left eye. Actually, he’s never seen much of Kakashi’s face, to be honest, but that’s not really unusual for a ninja in Tenzo’s experience. It’s the eye thing that’s strange ( _ because how can he have any depth perception?) _ and Tenzo had thought that maybe his captain only had one eye. 

From where he stands, he can only see Kakashi’s back. It’s not like he can just run past -  _ hey captain, can I see your face -  _ but he’s still burning with curiosity. 

“Come on, already.” Shisui pokes his head out of an open doorway ahead of them. “Hurry up, you -- oh.”

He stares at Kakashi, and Kakashi stares back. The air is thick with something, but Tenzo still has no idea what’s going on. He glances over at Mai, but she’s watching Shisui intensely. 

Finally Shisui looks away. “Come on, you sh… you should see this.”

He ducks back through the doorway. Kakashi turns to beckon Tenzo and Mai to follow, and Tenzo finally catches a glimpse of his face. He  _ does _ have two eyes, but the left one is a different color - or maybe it’s just the firelight. But it  _ looks _ red, much more red than the other one. Tenzo blinks, and realizes he’s staring. Kakashi clears his throat, and Tenzo blushes and looks down. “Let’s go, then.”

They file into the room. Despite the rough stairs and the dirt passageway outside, this room is even and well made. The floor is paved with flat stones and there are some old wooden desks on the far wall. Everything is lined with dust. 

Shisui is poking through one of the desks. Kakashi begins to examine the walls, and Mai goes over to help him. Tenzo lingers by the door, feeling a sudden, strong feeling of distaste. The room seems familiar, somehow. 

“I think these are records,” Shisui is saying. “They’re pretty old though, maybe 30 years?”

“Don’t damage them,” Kakashi replies. “The Hokage will want to see them.”

Another sound is nagging at the back of Tenzo’s mind. It’s almost like he can hear water. 

“It’s almost like bloodline records. Different clans and clan abilities.”

The trickling sound grows louder. There’s water flowing somewhere. Tenzo backs out of the room and stares down the passageway. Without the light from Kakashi or Shisui, he can’t see anything. But he can still hear the sound.

The passage is made of dirt but the ground is even. Tenzo only needs one hand to guide himself along the wall and towards the water. The sound grows louder as he gets closer to it. 

_ Drip, drip, drip.  _

The passageway turns. Then it branches. It’s so dark now that he can’t see anything. But the water is easy to follow.

Finally he’s there. In the room where the water trickles down the walls and pools on the floor. He can’t see anything, but he still knows the tanks are there. He takes a step forward and hears the crinkle of broken glass beneath his feet. His hand goes up instinctively to cover the back of his neck.

“Tenzo!” All of a sudden light is flooding around him and hands are grabbing at his arm. “What are you doing?! Why did you - what were you thinking?”

Tenzo blinks rapidly to clear the spots from his eyes. “Shisui?”

“Yeah. Are you ok? What happened? This room is fucking creepy, how on earth did you find it?”

He looks around. Illuminated in the glow of Shisui’s fire, the room is completely different than he’d thought. There are no tanks, no water covered walls. Instead there are four chairs with leather straps, and tables with metal instruments on them. He looks down. Underneath his foot is a broken syringe. Slowly, he lowers his hand from his neck.

“Tenzo! Shisui!” Kakashi bursts through the door, closely followed by Mai. 

“Don’t worry, we’re fine,” Shisui says. “At least, I think so.”

Kakashi looks hard at Tenzo, who stares back blankly. The room is wrong. This isn’t the place he thought it was at all. 

Eventually Kakashi turns back to Shisui. “Maa, I know that staying in one place is difficult for you. But please do  _ try _ to stop running off all the time. You’re going to get us all killed.”

“ _ Me?! _ ” Shisui is outraged. “If you’d been paying the slightest bit of attention, you wouldn’t have let Tenzo run off by himself!”

Mai comes over, ignoring the impending argument. She puts her hand gently on Tenzo’s shoulder. “Are you ok?”

“Mmm… yeah.” He nods, dazed. 

“Let’s get you back above ground, ok? I don’t want to stay in this place.” She glances around the room and shudders, guiding Tenzo gently towards the doorway.

#####

Master Danzo isn’t in his study when Tenzo arrives. He kneels down into the once-familiar pose and resigns himself to what could be a long wait. After just a few minutes, his legs start to ache and protest the uncomfortable position. Has he neglected his training so much? Or has it just been so long since the last time he knelt for any length of time?

The door opens behind him, and he hears the shuffle of Danzo’s walking stick. Tenzo firmly represses the urge to look up. He isn’t in Anbu now.

“17201. It’s been a while.” The old man seats himself at the desk. There’s a pause. If this were Kakashi, he’d be expecting an answer. But it’s not, and Tenzo knows better than to speak.

“I’m told you inspected an old hideout that used to belong to Orochimaru.” Tenzo draws in a sharp breath - an instinctive response, but Master Danzo notices, and disapproval is heavy in his next words. “Not your one, of course, but it must have been similar. What did you find there?”

“Ju.. just records.” Tenzo swallows down the tightness in his throat and wishes he could cover his ears to block out the sound of water.

“What kind of records?”

Tenzo stares at the floor, and starts describing them.

#####

It always starts out well.

There’s really no way to tell when a mission is going to go wrong, Tenzo thinks bitterly, because they  _ always start out well _ . 

It had been a beautiful spring morning. Birds chirping, leaves rustling, air just cool enough to make the sun rays pleasant against skin. Absolutely no warning that it might turn out to be the last day of his life.

Tenzo dives frantically to the left and manages to avoid the boulder that slams into the ground next to him by an inch. The giant golem roars in fury and sinks its overgrown fingers into the ground to pry up another rock. Tenzo calls up as many vines as he can manage to wrap around the golem’s hand and bind it to the ground, but the creature just rips them apart as it raises another projectile. 

This is all his own fault, really, Tenzo reflects as he drags up a wall of earth, trying to create a somewhat defensible position. The force of the golem’s attack shatters it into pieces, and he’s forced to flee again. If he’d thought to confirm that Anbu hand signs and Root hand signs were all the same, he wouldn’t be in this mess. An alcove in the cliff wall next to him offers an opportunity to catch his breath, and Tenzo presses himself against the rock to stay out of sight of the monster lumbering after him. 

Surely it isn’t unreasonable to assume that the Root and Anbu use the same hand signs. What’s the point in having different ones? Tenzo scowls and curses himself for not doing what would, in hindsight, have been a pretty simple way to avoid this situation. 

The golem seems to have lost him for the moment, and he tries to keep track of its movements without giving away his position. Has it moved to the west? Its body is so heavy that the rumbling as it walks seems to come from all directions.

The rest of his team has probably completed their mission by now, he reflects ruefully. Hopefully he has at least managed to distract the enemy and make their job easier. What had Kakashi meant then, he wonders. Probably ‘retreat’, or ‘go around’. The others had all disappeared very quickly. Only Tenzo had been stupid enough to think they were meant to attack the thing.

The rumbling gets louder, and his moment of reprieve is over. Rock shatters in the place he had been standing a moment after he launches himself into the air, but he’s a second too slow. The golem’s other arm smacks into him in midair, and he goes crashing into the ground. As he struggles to his feet, he’s almost knocked over again when the creature’s foot lands next to him and the vibration makes the earth quake. 

Tenzo considers his situation with as much optimism as he can muster. The chances of getting out of this are slim. What kind of team is going to come back for someone who can’t even understand basic hand signs?

_ Kakashi would, _ his mind whispers.  _ Kakashi wouldn’t leave someone behind. _

But Kakashi and the others wouldn’t have noticed he was missing until they met up later, and even then why would they assume he had stayed behind to fight the giant earth monster? No one in their right mind would have decided to pick a fight with this behemoth.

So there’s no sign of Kakashi or anyone else, and he’s getting too tired to dodge properly. The golem has forced him back against the ocean’s edge, and the sand is soft and treacherous under his feet. A boulder thunders over his head and he stumbles. Just meters away, the sea is writhing angrily, a dark shade of grey. He’s back on his feet in a second, but it’s already too late: a giant rock arm is barreling toward him, and he goes flying backwards. He crashes into the water, knocking the air from his body. The water closes over his head before he can manage to take a breath and suddenly everything is dark. 

Tenzo reaches out weakly, trying to find the surface, but he can’t swim and the earth is too far away. There are no plants in range. Nothing else to feel. Just water.

Then something is grabbing at his arms, and his chest, and there’s a dizzying rush and suddenly he’s out of the water and he can breath again. There’s solid earth under his feet and Tenzo coughs and coughs and tries to get the water out of his lungs. Someone is talking to him, saying his name. He tries to respond, but the world sways around him and he’s pitching forward. The edges of his vision turn grey, and he doesn’t remember anything more.

Consciousness returns only slowly. Pain is the first thing to register - a dull ache in his core that spreads to his limbs just as soon as his brain recognizes they are still attached. Opening his eyes is a struggle. Tenzo forces himself to raise his head and look around. It’s dark. There are trees all around, and light from a nearby fire flickers over bushes and throws shadows over the forest floor. Bandages are covering his legs and arms and chest, so his team must have come back for him. Danzo was wrong after all. He lays his head back down.

The movement doesn’t go unnoticed. A second later a figure drops down beside him and a hand brushes over his forehead. He blinks up to see Shisui staring down at him, face strained in a tightly expressionless mask.

“You’re awake.” 

He coughs. “Ye... yeah. What happened?”

“You tried to kill yourself, is what happened.” Shisui’s mouth is trembling, and his breathing is too fast.

Tenzo is too tired and too sore to deal with Shisui’s dramatics. He tries to push himself into a sitting position. The world sways and he leans forward to grasp at his knees.

“Thought you’d just take that thing on by yourself, did you?” Shisui demands, unhappy at being ignored. “You’ve got chakra exhaustion, you know.”

“I know.” Tenzo snaps back at him, already recognizing the start of the accompanying migraine. “I don’t need you to tell me.”

“What kind of Anbu can’t swim, anyway?” Shisui retorts. Kakashi appears over his shoulder, but Shisui ignores him. “If I hadn’t fished you out, you would have drowned. Don’t they teach you anything in Root?”

“Shisui.” Kakashi sounds mildly rebuking. The Uchiha glares at Tenzo once more and then jumps up and vanishes into the trees. Tenzo scowls after him.

“He was very worried about you,” Kakashi says, crouching down beside him.

Tenzo doesn’t say anything. Kakashi sighs, one hand coming up to rub the back of his head. “We all were.”

“Sorry,” Tenzo mumbles. 

“What happened?”

“I didn’t see… I misread your signs,” Tenzo admits. He waits to see what will happen, if this will be the time that Kakashi loses his temper. Part of him wants to blame Root, to say that Danzo taught him different meanings. But it feels like an excuse. He should have checked. And maybe this will be the straw that breaks Kakashi’s calm demeanor. 

“Ah.” Kakashi says instead. “Well, pay more attention next time.”

#####

The hospital sends Tenzo home, but restricts him from active duty for two weeks. Even his training is restricted - he’s only allowed to do physical activity for 4 hours a day. So Tenzo ends up spending most of his time in his room, either sleeping or reading or practicing with his Mokuton. He feels a little guilty about the last one, because he’s pretty sure the medics would be very upset if they found out. But  _ technically _ they only forbade him from doing  _ physical  _ activity.

He’s lying on his bed staring up at the ceiling, hands behind his head, when there’s a soft tap at the door. Tenzo turns his head but doesn’t react, because it’s probably Shisui, and Shisui tends to barge straight into the room without waiting for anyone to answer. But when a minute passes and the knock sounds again, Tenzo rolls off the bed and goes over to open the door. 

Mai is standing in the hallway, fidgeting from one foot to the other. Tenzo looks at her in surprise. “What happened? Is there a mission?”

“Oh, no,” she replies, meeting his eyes and then looking back down at the hallway floor. “I just thought I would… visit. See how you were.”

“Oh.” Tenzo blinks but steps back, opening the door wider for her to pass through. Mai shoots him a smile as she steps into his room. 

“Do you live here normally?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. I thought you’d have more things.”

“Things like what?” Tenzo glances around the room. It’s true it’s pretty bare - just the bed and the bookshelf that were there when he moved in. He has added quite a few books to it, though.

“More furniture and stuff. Don’t you want a chair? Or a table? Where do you eat?”

“Uhhh… Are you allowed to do that? Just bring stuff in?”

Mai’s expression is somewhere between disbelief and amusement. “Of course.” 

She looks around the room again, and then carefully settles herself on the floor, leaning back against the wall. Tenzo hesitates, and then goes over to join her.

“So.”

“So?” he asks.

“I guess Anbu hand signs aren’t exactly the same as Root ones.”

Tenzo starts in astonishment. “How did you know that? Were you in Root as well?”

She smiles, quietly triumphant. “Just a guess.”

“Oh.” He settles back against the wall, feeling a little tricked. “But how did you know?”

“You’ve never had trouble reading hand signs before.” She shrugs. “It seemed like the obvious answer. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t want… it seemed like an excuse.”

Mai tips her head back against the wall. “But it’s important for us to know this, Tenzo. You saw what happened - what if the next person isn’t as lucky as you were? They’d be dead, and they wouldn’t be able to tell anyone why.”

“Oh.” He digests this for a moment. “But surely someone - I mean, wouldn’t the Anbu leaders already know? Master Danzo - Root - must have told them?”

She shakes her head slowly. “I don’t think so. He doesn’t really tell anyone anything. Danzo prefers to keep his own council.”

“But…” Tenzo’s mind is struggling to comprehend this. “He must have known this would happen at some point.”

“Yes,” Mai agrees. “He must have.”

She doesn’t continue, doesn’t state the next obvious conclusion - but Tenzo feels like the accusation is made anyway.

“Master Danzo does everything for the safety of the village,” he insists. “He wouldn’t jeopardize a mission like that.”

Mai doesn’t say anything. 

“He wouldn’t.” It sounds weak even to his own ears.

They sit together in silence. 

#####

Tenzo heals. The medics pronounce him fit, and he’s allowed back on the team. Perhaps it’s coincidence, but they don’t get any missions outside of the village for the next month.

One day, Kakashi decides they’ve been lax in the practicing department, and they’re going to do some one-on-one sparring. Tenzo turns instinctively to Shisui, but their captain continues, “Let’s do something different today. Shisui, why don’t you practice with Mai? Tenzo and I will train together this time.”

Tenzo exchanges a wary glance with Shisui. It’s never good when Kakashi thinks up new things.

He walks over a little more slowly than usual, trying not to drag his feet. He’s never fought his captain one-on-one before. Kakashi just grins at him.

“Come on then, let’s see what you’ve got.”

Tenzo shifts warily from one foot to the other, and wishes that he could use his Mokuton.

Kakashi is leaning back, completely relaxed. His one visible eye is crinkled in amusement, and his hands are tucked into the pockets of his jacket. Tenzo focuses on his feet, watching for the slightest movement - or the flicker that will tell him if Kakashi is replacing himself with a clone.

It never comes - but somehow Kakashi has moved anyway, and only the most basic instinct saves Tenzo from taking a blow straight to the face. He dodges to the right and tries a spinning kick. It doesn’t connect, and he has to dodge again straight away.

Kakashi aims his own kick at shoulder height, and this time Tenzo blocks it, trying to use it as a distraction for a kunai. His captain vanishes at the last second and the kunai thuds into a tree.

Tenzo spins around, trying to quiet his mind and sense Kakashi’s location. He realizes a second too late, when Kakashi springs out of the ground behind him, hand oustretched.

Shisui must have seen what was going to happen - somehow. His eyes are wide as he screams something at Kakashi, but Tenzo doesn’t hear what he says.

Kakashi’s hand closes on the back of his neck, and Tenzo’s world shuts down.

The memory of excruciating agony is blinding. He can feel the needle piercing down into his neck, feel it scrape against the vertebrae. A cold voice cataloguing his reaction -  _ blood pressure elevated, heartbeat rising -  _ and the scratch of a pen against paper. 

Water trickles down the wall and drips onto the ground.

_ Plip, plop. _

There are other bodies around him, faceless and nameless just like him, and they’re calling out, trying to tell him something. He claws frantically, trying to escape from the darkness pressing against him...

“Tenzo!”

He blinks, or tries to, because his eyes are already closed. When he opens them, Shisui is standing in front of him, one hand reaching out but not quite touching. 

“Tenzo! Are you ok?”

“Fine.” He bats the hovering hand away and forces that memory back down into the dark.

“Are you sure?” Shisui asks doubtfully, and as Tenzo turns to look for the others he sees why.

Kakashi is crouched at least 20 meters away, a kunai gripped warily in one hand and one cheek bleeding sluggishly from a shallow scratch. Between them is a sea of thorns: huge, spiky vines that twist viciously and surge on top of each other to rise higher. Mai is watching them cautiously from a much safer distance.

He turns back to Shisui in badly disguised horror, and this time notices the cuts and scratches on his hands and arms. 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean… I’m sorry.”

He forces the vines back down into the earth, and as they disappear Kakashi straightens up and walks over to them, calmly slipping the kunai back onto his belt. Mai follows suit a little more warily.

“I didn’t mean…” Tenzo tries, glancing around. They’re all looking at him, even Mai. His throat closes, and he can’t get the words out.

“Tenzo? What happened?” Kakashi asks.

He tries to think of a way to explain, but there’s really no excuse. Letting anyone that close is a failure of everything he’s learnt, and he deserves whatever punishment he gets.

When it’s clear that Tenzo is struggling to say anything, Kakashi speaks again, uncharacteristically stern. “I want an explanation. You could have done some serious damage -”

“Are you really going to blame him for this?” Shisui exclaims suddenly. “This is all your fault!”

Tenzo looks up in surprise to see Kakashi turn a scowl on the young Uchiha. “I  _ beg _ your pardon?”

“You heard me! What were you thinking? You should have known -”

“Should have known  _ what _ ?”

“Don’t argue,” Tenzo manages to get out, but he’s too quiet and neither of them seem to hear.

“You should  _ know _ ! If you’d paid any attention, you  _ would _ know!” 

“What the  _ hell _ are you talking about?” Kakashi snaps. 

“STOP!!!”

\--

Everyone is suddenly silent, and Tenzo swallows uncomfortably. He’s never yelled like that before.

They’re all watching him. Tenzo forces himself to say something, to say  _ anything _ . “It was the needle. I thought - I thought it was the needle.”

Kakashi looks very, very angry. But he makes an effort to speak calmly, which is somehow even worse. “What needle, Tenzo?”

“I just.. I thought I felt…” He takes a breath and tries again. “It wasn’t real. Just an old… memory. I shouldn’t have let it distract me. This is my fault. I won’t let it happen again.”

He bows his head, hoping that if he shows suitable remorse that it might wash over, that no one will insist on a better explanation.

“It’s not your fault,” Shisui protests angrily. 

“Enough.” Kakashi cuts him off coldly. “I need to talk to the Hokage. Training is over for today. You’re dismissed. Leave.“

Tenzo stares at him, frightened. Is Kakashi going to ask the Hokage to send him back to Root?

“But…” Shisui says.

“ _ Now! _ ”

Tenzo runs, not waiting to see what the others will do. He loses himself in the forest as quickly as he can, drowning himself in quiet greenery.

#####

Sarutobi is writing quietly at his desk when Kakashi opens the door without knocking, stalking inside and clicking it shut without a word. Icy anger is filling every inch of his body. The Hokage looks up at him, and then glances at the window in surprise. 

“Kakashi. You used the door. What’s wrong?”

“Orochimaru.”

The Hokage lays down his pen. “I beg your pardon?”

Kakashi leans back against the door, arms crossed over his chest. “You didn’t tell me that kid was one of Orochimaru’s test subjects.”

“Would it have made a difference?” The Third asks mildly. “Besides, I thought that it should be his to tell.”

“Oh, you thought it would come up in casual conversation? That he would confess it around the campfire?” 

Sarutobi sighs. “I didn’t think you needed to know.”

“ _ Didn’t need to know?! _ ” Kakashi hisses furiously. “This is my  _ team _ we’re talking about. You sent  _ my team _ to scope out one of Orochimaru’s old hideouts,  _ not knowing _ we had one of his  _ experiments _ in our midst!”

“Is that what this is about? I assure you, I took all the necessary precautions. I would not send your team heedlessly into danger.”

“And why was one of those necessary precautions not  _ telling me what was going on? _ ”

The Hokage folds his hands in front of him. “I had hoped he would have told you himself. And I wanted to give the boy a fair chance - you didn’t need an extra prejudice against him.”

“Speaking of,” Kakashi says, voice deceptively mild, “how did he end up in Root, anyway?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you find a young child in a lab, who has obviously suffered terrible things, and you decide  _ this _ is a good candidate to send into an underground cult to train into an assassin?”

The Hokage sighs and rubs one hand across his eyes. For a moment he looks tired. 

“Danzo needs recruits. Anbu needs new shinobi, the village needs Anbu - it made sense at the time. What kind of life could that boy have had anyway?”

“Absolutely none, after you gave him to Root!” Kakashi snaps. 

“I have a whole village to think about, Kakashi. I cannot just consider one life - these are the sacrifices I have to make as Hokage.” 

“Ah, I see.  _ You _ made the sacrifice.”

Sarutobi rubs his hand over his eyes again. “If you refuse to work with the boy anymore, it will be difficult to find someone to replace you.”

“Don’t even think about it.” Kakashi turns on his heel and yanks the door open. 

#####

Deep in the forest, birds chirp softly between thick leaves. The cool air keeps the moss damp and vibrant, and the trees have grown majestically tall. This peaceful solitude is disrupted by the scuffing of footsteps approaching, the sounds of someone who is not bothering to conceal themselves. High up in one of the branches, Tenzo wraps his arms tighter around his knees and huddles deeper into the leaves, hoping whoever it is will pass by quickly. He really doesn’t want to talk to anyone right now.

Fortune isn’t on his side.  _ Hasn’t been for a while _ . The footsteps come to a halt directly beneath his tree. Someone is looking for him, then. Tenzo buries his head further into his arms and wonders if anyone would believe he had suddenly become deaf.

“Tenzo?”

The voice is quiet but it’s unmistakable. He looks down to see Shisui peering up through the leaves.

“Is it ok if I come up?”

If he doesn’t answer, Shisui will take that as a yes. Tenzo thinks about it for a moment and decides he doesn’t mind. He knows Shisui well enough to know that the Uchiha won’t be cruel about it, at least.

“I’m going to take your silence as a yes.”

A reluctant smile tugs at his mouth and Tenzo shuffles to the side, making room for another person beside him.

“Tenzo? I’m coming up, ok?”

There’s a flurry of leaves, and then Shisui leaps up onto the branch. Tenzo raises his head to look at him dully. Shisui gazes back, his dark eyes worried. 

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah.”

Shisui hesitates, then slumps down against the trunk next to him. 

Tenzo draws in a deep breath. “What did they say?”

“Who?” 

“The Anbu… people.”

“What Anbu people?”

“You know. The Anbu leaders. What did they say?”

“About you?” Shisui asks, tilting his head in confusion.

Tenzo nods.

“Nothing. I don’t think they know anything. Did you think Kakashi was going to run off and tell them - what, that you got the better of him in a training exercise? Like they’d care.”

It’s Tenzo’s turn to be confused. “But… I thought... Kakashi was so angry?”

“He wasn’t angry at  _ you _ .” Shisui insists. “Besides, it was his fault anyway.”

Tenzo maintains a doubtful silence. Shisui watches him for a moment. 

“You really look up to him, don’t you? Kakashi, I mean.”

Of course. The question is, why doesn’t Shisui? “Why are you always arguing with him?”

Shisui drops his gaze and jabs viciously at a piece of bark next to him. “It’s a family thing. My clan doesn’t like him very much.”

“Why not?”

“It’s complicated.” 

Shisui lapses into silence, and Tenzo considers pressing the question, but eventually decides on one more important right at the moment.

“So they aren’t going to send me back?”

Shisui glances up quickly in surprise. “Send you back? To Root, you mean? No! Why would you think that?”

Danzo never actually said it outright, but Tenzo thinks the implication was pretty clear. He can’t think of a way to explain it to Shisui though, so he just shrugs.

Shisui leans back against the tree next to him, their shoulders pressing together. “Don’t worry. No one’s going to send you anywhere. Kakashi won’t let them.  _ I  _ won’t let them either.”

A sudden wave of gratitude floods through him, and he relaxes back against Shisui’s shoulder, letting out a deep breath. 

Shisui huffs. “I can’t believe you thought Kakashi would report you to Anbu leadership.”

“I thought you didn’t like Kakashi?”

“I said it was complicated. I didn’t say he was a horrible person.”

“Why is it complicated?”

“I’ll tell you another time.” Shisui twists around to look at him. “I can’t stay - actually I’m supposed to be at home right now. There’s some clan meeting at 6 that I’m supposed to attend.”

“It’s 6:30 already.”

“I  _ know _ . But I wanted to make sure you were ok. You know, after everything… and I’m sorry about the… well, about the other thing.”

Tenzo raises both eyebrows. Without the fear of being sent back to Root, his tongue feels much lighter. “Thanks, Shisui. That’s really specific. I know exactly what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, shut up. You know what I mean.”

“Well it sounds like you’re apologising for  _ everything _ , so - better late than never I guess.”

“Why, you - !” Shisui shoves him, and then laughs. “You’re feeling better, then. Good. Because I really have to go. My mom’s gonna kill me.”

Tenzo watches him climb to his feet and brush down his clothes, and wishes suddenly that he didn’t have to leave. “Thanks. For coming out here.”

Shisui’s answering smile is so sweet he can’t help returning it. “Of course.”

#####

Kakashi debates sneaking into the Uchiha compound for a long time, but eventually decides against it. The last thing he needs is for people to think that Anbu is trying to infiltrate the Uchiha. 

So his casual demeanor is more forced than normal when he ambles confidently through the compound gates. The guards on duty look at him askance, but they don’t try to stop him.

He’s never been to this particular house before, but it isn’t hard to find. His target hasn’t bothered to conceal his presence, and the chakra signal is familiar enough that he could have found it from a much further distance.

The street is busy, even inside the compound. A grandmother playing with her grandchildren; a house wife talking to her friends. Angry voices echo faintly from somewhere ahead of him, his sharp ears catching the tones even through the chatter of conversation around him.

As he gets closer, they all pause to stare at him - their faces varying from surprise to distrust to anger. Kakashi contemplates fading into the shadows of the nearest house, to avoid them - but this trip is supposed to be conciliatory. He can make some concessions.

At the end of the street, he finds what he came for. Shisui Uchiha is slouched on the wooden steps outside his house. He looks up as Kakashi approaches, and their eyes meet just as another stream of angry abuse floods out of the open door. Shisui flinches and looks away.

The voices are a man and a woman - probably Shisui’s parents, Kakashi realizes - and though he can’t make out exactly what they’re saying, he catches the words ‘Anbu’ and ‘traitor’. Shisui crouches miserably on the steps, face hidden and downcast.

Kakashi sighs, and Shisui looks up at him reluctantly.

“Come on. We’re going to have a talk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's really pretty hypocritical of Kakashi to disapprove of Tenzo keeping secrets when he has so many himself.


End file.
